^So^-fefe^  


I 


ERASMUS  AS  A  PAlK-TER. 


TO  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  TIMES. 
Sir, — It  is  a  well -attested  historical  fact 
that  Erasmus  practised  the  art  of  painting 
and  won  the  praise  of  contemporaries  and 
rivals.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  painted 
a  picture  of  Christ  on  the  Cross,  with  Mary 
and  St.  John,  which  was  in  the  monastery  of 
Emmaus,  near  Gouda,  where  and  for  which 
it  was  probably  executed.  Tliis  picture, 
wliich  bore  the  inscription — 

ITacc  De.siderius,  ne  spornas,  Pinxit  EraBmus, 
Olirn  in  Steinaeo  quando  latebat  Agro." 

(Despise  not  this  picture,  for  Erasmus  painted 
it  when  formerly  he  was  in  retirement  in  the 
country  near  Stein.)  This  picture  lias  long 
since  disappeared  and  all  traces  of  it  have  been  . 
lost.  Now  another,  and  undoubtedly  im- 
portant, picture  has  come  to  light  in  America 
which  is  claimed  to  be  the  only  existing 
work  of  Erasmus.  It  is  in  the  fonn  of  a 
triptych  on  wood,  the  centre  panel  45in.  by 
33in.,  and  the  two  wings  45in.  by  13|in.  ; 
it  was  imported  into  America  by  M.  F.  Klein - 
berger  and  sold  to  Mr.  E.  A.  Faust,  of  St. 
Louis.  It  fonned  the  subject  of  an  article 
in  Art  in  America  of  last  December  by  Mr. 
M.  W.  Brockwell,  who  has  now  elaborated 
his  essaj''  into  a  quarto 'monograph  ninety- 
eight  pages  (privately  printed  in  New  York), 
with  numerous  illustrations.  The  brochure 
forms  an  important  and  welcome  addition  to 
art  literature  and  to  Erasmus  biography. 

To  judge  even  from  so  uncertain  and  often 
misleading  a  guide  as  photographs  of  pictures, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  work  is  by  a 
Netherlander  of  about  1500.  Its  ascription 
to  Erasmus  is  based  on  an  inscription  on  an 
oval  shield  held  by  an  armoured  and  mounted 
soldier  (in  the  centre  panel),  and  having  as 
its  centre  the  head  of  a  wild-looking  infidel  ; 
the  lettering  around  the  outer  edge  of  the 
shield  clearly  reading  "  Erasmus  P.  1501," 
and  evidently  contemporaneous  with  the 
painting  itself.  It  is  an  inscription  rather 
than  a  signature  in  the  strict  meaning  of  the 
word  ;  and  as  there  are  no  pictures  existing 
with  the  signature  of  Erasmus,  this  work 
must  rank  as  by  that  great  man  unless  some 
very  destructive  evidence  to  the  contrary  can 
be  produced.  Mr.  Brockwell  has  made  out  an 
excellent  case  in  favoiu*  of  what  is  unques- 
tionably a  remarkable  example  of  early 
Flemish  art. 

The  liistory  of  the  picture  is  unfortimately 
neither  clear  nor  long.  Until  recently  it  was 
in  the  South  of  France,  its  last  owner  stating 
that  it  was  formerly  in  the  collection  of  the 
late  King  of  Portugal,  wliilst  "  tradition  says 
that  at  the  time  of  the  Napoleonic  v*^ars  it  was 
removed  from  Antwerp."  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  it  was  in  the  collection  of  the 
Comte  d'Espinoy,  whose  pictures  were  sold 
at  Versailles  in  1850  ;  it  was  lot  437,  it  was 
fairly  fully  described,  the  signatiu-e  and  date 
being  both  mentioned.  There  is  thence  an 
apparent  gap  in  the  liistory  until  1873  ;  and 
on  December  15  of  that  year  an  article 
appeared  in  the  Brussels  Journal  des  Beaux 
Arts  with  the  title  "  L' Unique  Tableau 
d'Erasmo  Retrouv6,"  in  which  it  is  stated 
that  the  picture  was  then  in  the  care  of  Heris, 
the  museum  expert,  to  whom  it  was  sent  from 
Lisbon  to  be  cleaned.  It  is  perfectly  certain 
that  so  remarlcable  a  picture  by  so  great  a  man  | 
must  have  formed  the  subject  of  many  articles  I 
in  the  French  and  other  Continental  art 
and  other  joui-nals  about  the  time  of  its  sale 
in  1 850 ;  and  further  search  may  unearth 
some  of  these.  In  the  meantime  I  caii 
8uppl\  ;'.M        ,  --Hnt  1!mI-  ^.,of  to  Mr 


Brockwell.  This  picture  forms  the  subject  of 
a  passage  in  the  fourth  volume  of  F.  Feuillet 
de  Conches' s  "  Causeries  d'un  Curieux," 
Paris,  1868,  a  collection  of  essays  on  art 
which  probably  first  saw  light  in  some 
French  review.  In  the  course  of  a  chapter  on 
"  L'Art  sous  Henry  VIII."  the  author 
says  (p.  182)  :— 

Grand  connaisseur  en  mati^re  d'art,  firasme 
dessinait  auissi  et  peignait  ses  heures.  Un  Curieux 
de  Lisbonne  possede  de  lui  un  triptyque  signe, 
bien  compost,  d'une  execution  seche  et  gothique, 
il  est  vrai,  mais  cependant  satisfaisante.  Au 
centre  est  le  Christ  crucifix  entre  les  deux  larrons. 
Les  saintos  fenimes  sont  au  pled  de  la  croix.  Les 
volets  offrent  les  details  de  la  Passion.  Celui  de 
gauche  est  une  pieta.  j 

It  is  clear  from  this  that  M.  Feuillet  de! 
Conches  either  saw  the  picture  or  had  read 
somewhere  a  full  description  of  it.  It  must 
have  formed  the  subject  of  a  good  desal  of 
discussion  in  art  circles  between  (if  not 
before)  its  sale  in  1850  and  the  writing  of  the 
"  Causeries  d'un  Curieux."  If  its  history 
cannot  bo  traced  farther  back  than  1850,  the 
same  difficulty  ought  not  to  exist  respecting 
its  wanderings  since  that  date.  To  complete 
the  history  of  this  interesting  picture  Mr. 
Brockwell  has  much  yet  to  discover  ;  and  in 
the  course  of  his  researches  he  will  probably 
find  out  that  Charles  Reade  did  not  write  ai 
book  with  the  title  "  Cricke.t  on  the  Hearth 
[p.  41,  note)  I 

Yours  obediently, 

W.  ROBERTS.  ! 


Could  Erasmus  Paint  ? 


By 


ERASMUS :  Humanist  and  Painter. 
Maurice  W.  Brockwell.   ^      '  ,  ■ 

Tills  little  monograph  advances  the  in- 
teresting theory  that  the  great  renaissance 
scholar  had  the  gift  of  painting  as  well  as  of 
philosophy.    Mr.  Brockwell  bases  his  con- 
tention upon  a  picture  in  the  possession 
of  a  French  nobleman  of  Flemish  descent, 
and    statements  by  contemporaries  that 
Erasmus  knew  how  to  wield  the  brush. 
The  painting  is  signed.    But  a  signature 
is    the   simplest   thing  under    the  sun. 
Every  machine-made  fiddle  is  authentically 
signed  "Stradivarius."    Some  of  the  othef 
proofs  submitted  by  Mr.   Brockwell  are 
more  persuasive,  and  the  picture  itself,  at 
least  the  reproduction  of  it  given  in  this 
volume,  has  decided  merit.    In  fact,  that 
would  appear  to  be  the  chief  argument^ 
against  the  claim  that  Erasmus  'Tr  nif,^ 
It  is  entirely  too  good  for  an  only  opus. 
However,  ho  bones  will  be  broken  in  Mr. 
Brockweir&  controversy,  because  the  repu- 
tation of  Erasmus  will  not  stand  or"  fall 
on  the  merits  of  this  triptych. 


ERASMUS:  HUMANIST 
AND  PAINTER 


ERASMUS  AS  A 


PAINTER 
"  CHRIST  ON  THE  CROSS  " 

TO  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  TIMES 
Sir, — At  the  present  moment,  when  the  mani- 
fold activities  and  journeys  of  Erasmus  are 
under  review  in  many  lands,  it  may  be  desir- 
able definitely  to  determine  that  in  his  early 
years  he  practised  the  art  of  painting. 

Having  at  the  age  of  17  entered,  as  a  novice, 
the  house  of  the  Canons  Regular  of  St. 
Augustine  of  Emmaus  at  Steen,  near  Gouda, 
Erasmus  beyond  doubt  painted  about  1484  a 
picture,  still  "  lost  "  since  1755,  of  "  Christ 
on  the  Cross  with  Mary  and  St.  John.""  Dirk 
Evertsz  van  Bleijswyck  in  1667  recorded  its 
existence  at  Delft.  Houbraken  in  1718  informs 
us  of  its  being  then  in  the  esteemed  cabinet 
at  Delft  of  Prior  Cornelius  Musius,  who  added 
the  two-lined  inscription,  a  hexameter  and  a 
pentameter :  — 

Haec,  Desiderius,  ne  spernas,  pinxit 

Erasmus, 

Olim  in  Steinaeo  quando  latebat  Agro." 
Martinet,  Descamps,  Bredius,  and  Hofstede  de 
Groot,  as  well  as  Wurzbach  in  1906,  refer  to 
Erasmus's  having  painted  that  work. 

It  happens  that  in  1917  in  a  private  collec- 
tion in  the  Middle  West  of  America  I  came 
upon  a  large  triptych  of  "  Christ  on  the  Cross," 
the  centre  panel  measuring  45in.  by  33in..  whichi 
was  fully  insciibed:  **  Erasmvs  P.  1501. "j 
It  was  determined  that  this  triptych  had  been 
at  Versailles  in  January.  1850,  in  the  collection 
(No.  437)  of  the  Comte  d"Espinoy,  who  traced 
back  to  Netherlandish  ancestors  in  1514.  Re-, 
search  showed  that  it  was  to  be  identified  withj 
the  "  magnifique  triptyque  du  celebre  Erasme, 
signe:  Erasmus  P.  1501  ""  which  was  the  sub- 
ject of  an  article  entitled  "  L"unique  Tableau 
d"  Erasme  Retrouve,'"  published  in  the  Journal \ 
des  Beaux  Arts  de  Bruxelles  of  December  15,' 
1873,  and  so  recorded  in  1906  by  Wurzbach. 
This  triptych  again  disappeared  from  view  until 
in  1917  it  was  imported  into  New  York  from 
the  South  of  France.  Further  investigation  led 
me  to  make  this  triptych  the  subject  of  a 
monograph,  privately  printed,  on  "  Erasmus: 
Humanist  and  Painter,"'  in  which  I  claimed  this 
to  be  the  only  authenticated  painting  by  him 
now  known  to  exist.  Probably  few  to-day 
would,  without  investigation,  regard  Erasmus 
of  Rotterdam  in  the  role  of  a  painter  and 
immediately    recognize    this    as    his  a-rra^ 

^Eyoptvov. 

As  Erasmus  in  another  context  declared: 
"  Tandem  Bona  Causa  Triumphat."" 
Yours  obediently, 
MAURICE  W.  BROCKWELL. 
Richmond,  July  17. 


ERASMUS:  HUMANIST 
AND  PAINTER 


A  STUDY  OF  A  TRIPTYCH 
IN  A  PRIVATE  CC  TION 


BY 


i 


PRIVATELY  PRINIEP 
1918 

.K  .V.  .'J  ,,?.V»Ov\  .U. 


ERASMUS:  HUMANIST 
AND  PAINTER 


A  STUDY  OF  A  TRIPTYCH 
IN  A  PRIVATE  COLLECTION 


BY 

MAURICE  W.  BROCKWELL 


PRIVATELY  PRINTED 
1918 


To 
A.  B.  F. 

and 
U.E.M.B. 


"TANDEM  BONA  CAUSA  TRIUMPHAT" 


PREFACE 


The  appearance  in  the  United  States,  and  the  subse- 
quent addition  to  a  private  collection  in  the  Middle  West, 
of  the  only  signed  and  authenticated  picture  by  Erasmus 
is  so  unique  an  event  in  art  history  that  a  detailed  con- 
sideration of  all  the  issues  involved  calls  for  permanent 
record.  That  is  especially  the  case  in  regard  to  a  work 
which  had  been  forgotten  for  half  a  century,  but  which 
has  now  been  recovered  —  apparently  for  the  second 
time. 

The  present  writer  cannot  do  better  in  a  short  Preface 
than  make  his  appeal  to  the  reader  by  quoting  from  a 
translation  of  the  Preface  of  the  "Apophthegmes,"  pub- 
lished in  1531  and  dedicated  to  the  Duke  of  Cleves,  by 
"Desyderius  Erasmus  Roterodame.''  The  openings 
words  are: 

''unto  a  dukk's  soone  oi^  his  country 

"For  asmoche  as  ye  did  so  gentely  afore  receive  the 
other  little  books  whiche  I  had  then  sent  as  a  poor  earn- 
este  penie  .  .  .,1  have  thought  good  at  this  present 
to  joyne  to  the  saied  books  some  other  thing  rather  more 
mete  for  your  noblenesse,  and  also  (excepte  I  bee  moche 
deceived)  more  profitable  for  your  studies.'' 

M.  W.  B. 

New  York 
June  8, 1917 


CONTENTS 


I  The;  Int^rnai,  Evidence  of  the  Triptych  .      .  15 

II  The  Description  of  the  Triptych      ...  23 

III  The  Pedigree  Established   31 

IV  Erasmus,  Humanist  and  Painter      ...  41 
V   Portraits  of  Erasmus   81 

VI  No  Other  Picture  by  Erasmus  Known      .      .  87 

VII    Concluding  Remarks   90 

Index   96 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


I    A  Triptych  by  Erasmus      .      .      .  Frontispiece 


11    The  Centre:  Panel  22 

III  The  ShieIvD  (a  fragment  of  the  centre  panei.), 

SHOWING  THE  Signature  of  Erasmus,  together 
WITH  THE  Date  1501  24 

IV  The  Wings  (inside)  26 

V   The  Wings  (outside)  28 

VI    Portrait  of  Erasmus  by  Hans  Hoi^bein  the 

Younger,  in  the  Louvre  82 


I 

THE  INTERNAL  EVIDENCE  OF  THE  TRIPTYCH 


I 

THE  INTERNAL  EVIDENCE  OF  THE 
TRIPTYCH 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  painting  which  forms 
the  raison  d*  etre  of  the  present  monograph  is  from  the 
hand  of  some  Netherlander  who  flourished  circa  1500. 

The  style  is  somewhat  later  than  that  of  the  exceed- 
ingly rare  artist,  Albert  van  Ouwater  {ft.  1430-60)  and 
Geertgen  tot  Sint  Jans  (1465-1493),  his  contemporary 
at  Haarlem.  So  far  as  we  can  now  disentangle  the 
threads  of  painting  in  Holland  from  those  in  the  schools 
of  adjoining  territory,  these  were  the  earliest  purely 
Dutch  painters  whose  works  we  can  authenticate  and 
classify.  This  picture  must  have  been  painted  by  a 
Hollander  within  a  few  years  of  their  decease.  Careful 
examination  shows  that  it  comes  even  nearer  to  Cor- 
nelis  Engelbrechts  (1468-1533),  the  master  of  Lucas 
van  Leyden,  and  Jakob  Cornelisz  van  Amsterdam 
(1470-1533).  If  we  compare  it  with  the  "Calvary"  of 
the  Bachofen-Burckhardt  collection  at  Basel  by  Engel- 
brechts,^ we  find  in  each  similar  elements  of  grouping 
and  of  detail  as  well  as  in  the  rendering  of  the  middle 

^Exhibited  at  Diisseldorf  in  1904  (no.  202),  and  excellently 
reproduced  in  Clemen  and  Firmenich-Richartz's  work,  plate  Ix. 


1 6  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 

distance  and  the  background.  The  strenuous  grief  of 
the  three  figures  on  the  Crosses  and  the  play  of  Hne  in  the 
free-hanging  ropes  may  also  be  remarked.  Yet  in  the 
former  the  head-dresses  are  more  decorative,  there  is  a 
greater  variety  of  action  and  a  more  pronounced  ten- 
dency to  over-crowding.  The  attitude  of  one  of  the 
Marys  here  in  some  degrees  recalls  a  "Deposition"  by 
Engelbrechts  which  was  reproduced  some  five  years  ago 
in  an  article  on  'Xa  Peinture  Hollandaise ;  ^  the  figure  of 
the  swooning  Virgin  in  this  work  is  allied  to  that  of  her, 
standing  with  her  hands  clenched,  in  M.  Vaillat's  repro- 
duction. 

From  among  the  works  of  Jakob  Cornelisz,  of  Ooost- 
sanen,  or  of  Amsterdam,  we  may  select  the  triptych  of 
the  "Madonna  and  Saints"  at  Berlin,  as  well  as  the  kin- 
dred work  at  Antwerp.  We  find  the  same  love  of  detail 
in  the  rendering  of  the  faces  and  the  tree-form  of  the 
background.  Moreover,  the  elaborately  decorative 
treatment  of  detail  in  the  "Mount  Calvary,"  of  the  Rijks 
Museum  at  Amsterdam,  finds  an  echo  here.  In  the 
former  Christ  bears  His  Cross  and  is  accompanied  by 
the  executioner  in  the  right  background  very  much  as  in 
the  left  panel  of  the  present  triptych;  the  figures  on 
horses  to  the  right  of  the  Cross  are  met  with  again  in 
our  centre  panel,  and  the  Marys  on  the  left  of  the  Cross 

2  VArt  et  Les  Artistes,  1912,  vol.  xv,  p.  146. 


Internal  Evidence  of  Triptych  17 

are  grouped  with  just  as  much  conviction  as  in  our  ex- 
ample/ 

In  view  of  the  frequent  pictorial  representations  of 
''Calvary"  in  the  Netherlands  circa  1500,  we  do  not  won- 
der at  the  similarity  of  the  present  work  to  that  lent 
from  Aix-la-Chapelle  to  the  Dusseldorf  Exhibition  in 
1904  (No.  56)  and  catalogued  as  being  by  a  Lower 
Rhine  master  of  1510.  The  mounted  soldiers,  several 
other  participants  in  the  dread  scene,  and  the  violently 
contorted  thieves  in  their  death  agony  in  each  of  those 
works,  as  well  as  in  a  ''Crucifixion"  in  the  National  Gal- 
lery (No.  1040)  are  akin  in  style.* 

In  the  south  aisle  of  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Sauveur  at 
Bruges  is,  or  was  in  1914,  a  representation  of  "Christ  on 
the  Cross,"  with  "Christ  Bearing  His  Cross,"  and  the 
"Deposition."  The  three  subjects  there  form  one  com- 
position on  a  single  panel,  instead  of  being  represented, 
as  here,  in  a  triptych.  The  former  was  long  falsely  at- 
tributed to  Gerard  van  der  Meire  —  a  half-mythical  art- 
ist at  the  best  —  but  has  been  more  accurately  described 
by  Fierens-Gevaert  as  of  the  School  of  Bruges,  circa 

^  In  former  times  the  attribution  of  pictures  by  Jakob  van  Am- 
sterdam was  fantastically  inexact.  The  "Salome"  at  the  Hague 
was  at  one  time  or  another  ascribed  to  Lucas  van  Leyden,  Quentin 
Matsys,  Albrecht  Diirer,  and  Timoteo  Viti ! 

*  It  is,  or  at  least  used  to  be,  officially  catalogued  by  Poynter  as 
a  XV  Century  picture  of  the  ''German  Westphalian  School.'* 
The  wings  are  at  Liverpool. 


1 8  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 

1500/  We  find  both  in  it  and  in  the  present  triptych  an 
architectural  background  on  the  left  and  other  similari- 
ties of  style. 

In  the  gaily  apparelled  but  earnest  figure  to  the  left  of 
the  Cross,  whom  we  may  assume  to  be  the  Centurion 
Longinus,  is  reflected  something  of  the  mediaeval  knight- 
errantry  of  Albrecht  Diirer's  ''Trumpeter  and  Drum- 
mer/' of  1500,  at  Koln.  Each  is  conceived  in  the  same 
mood  as  Diirer's  engraving  of  the  "Ensign  Bearer," 
of  that  year.  Five  years  earlier,  during  his  first  visit 
to  Venice,  Diirer  had  drunk  at  the  spring  of  the  Italian 
Renaissance. 

Were  we  to  continue  our  investigations  further,  we 
should  find  that  many  elements  in  the  composition  in  the 
left  panel  of  our  triptych  are  to  be  found  again  some 
years  later  in  the  centre  portion  of  the  well-known  "En- 
tombment" by  Quentin  Matsys  at  Antwerp. 

In  the  present  rendering  there  is  undoubted  evidence 
of  an  oncoming  desire  to  centralize  the  main  action 
round  numerous  groups,  arranged  to  pass  from  left  to 
right  through  a  pictorial  and  far-stretching  landscape 
which  usually  extends  across  a  sandy  and  rocky  country. 
Thus  for  the  "Crucifixion"  is  substituted  in  time  the 
"Procession  to  Calvary,"  various  renderings  of  which 

^  Peinture  en  Belgique,  vol.  i,  p.  69,  plate  xliii.    Friedlander : 

^'Meisteriverke  der  Niederldndischen  Malerei"  Brugge,  1902,  no. 
120,  plate  Iv. 


Internal  Evidence  of  Triptych 


19 


were  a  century  later  painted  by  different  members  of  the 
Brueghel  family.  The  Antwerp  gallery  (No.  31),  the 
Koln  gallery  (No.  599),  the  former  Wedewer  collection, 
and  that  of  Lord  St.  Oswald  contain  such  composi- 
tions.^ In  them  the  ground  gradually  rises  toward 
the  right,  where  we  see  the  "Calvary''  on  an  eminence. 
Rather  similar  pictures  are  given  to  "Velvet"  Brueghel 
at  Tournai,  and  to  Jan  in  the  Uffizi  (No.  761  his). 

Earlier  than  the  rendering  of  the  three  Scenes  of  the 
Passion,  as  here  seen,  in  separate  panels  in  accordance 
with  tradition  and  ecclesiastical  instruction,  Dirk  Bouts 
had  set  forth  his  gruesome  but  attractive  Scenes  from 
the  Legends  of  Saints  in  which  he  made  the  landscape 
continuous  throughout  by  carrying  it  over  from  the 
wings  into  the  centre.  The  "Martyrdom  of  St.  Eras- 
mus" is  typical  of  such  treatment. 


«See  ''The  Nostell  Collection;'  1915,  p.  211,  by  the  present 
writer. 


II 

THE  DESCRIPTION 


n 

THE  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  TRIPTYCH 


Centre  Panel 
Christ  on  the  Cross 
Christ  is  seen  on  the  Cross  placed  on  rising  ground 
between  the  two  thieves.  The  breath  has  just  left  His 
body.  On  His  left  the  impenitent  thief  has  died  after 
undergoing  great  suffering.  The  penitent  thief  still 
struggles  in  the  final  pangs  of  death.  On  the  ridge  of 
high  ground  at  the  back  is  Longinus,  in  the  fanciful  at- 
tire of  a  Roman  soldier  with  a  Renaissance  shield  and  the 
lance;  by  his  side  stands  another  soldier.  In  the  left 
foreground,  near  the  foot  of  the  cross,  the  fainting  body 
of  theVirgin  is  supported  by  St.  John,  accompanied  by 
two  other  Marys  who  kneel.  Further  back  stands  anoth- 
er female  figure  who  wrings  her  hands  with  grief.  In  the 
foreground  a  whippet  lies  on  the  ground,  its  nose  pointed 
upward  in  the  direction  of  two  mounted  soldiers  who 
have  luxurious  armour  and  horse  trappings;  the  one 
nearest  the  front  has  slung  from  his  left  shoulder  a 
magnificent  oval  shield  having  as  its  centre  the  bronze 
head  of  an  infidel,  and  along  the  outer  edge  of  its  face  the 
inscription : 

"Erasmus  P.  1501" 


24  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


The  background  is  irregular  and  bounded  by  a  range 
of  hills  on  the  side  of  which  in  the  distance  is  the  City  of 
Jerusalem. 

Dexter,  or  Left,  Wing 
Christ  bearing  His  Cross 
Accompanied  by  a  motley  throng,  one  of  whom  is 
about  to  strike  Him  with  a  heavy  stick,  Christ  falls  be- 
neath the  weight  of  the  large  Cross.  His  steps  are  di- 
rected by  an  executioner,  in  fanciful  attire,  who  clutches 
at  His  robe.  In  the  left  foreground  kneels  St.  Veronica, 
holding  the  Sudarium  that  bears  the  imprint  of  the 
Sacred  Face.  The  background  is  formed  by  a  mediae- 
val castle  with  its  massive  portal,  portcullis,  walls,  and 
towers/ 

On  the  back  of  this  wing  is  a  full  length  representa- 
tion in  grisaille  of  St.  Piatus.  He  stands  within  a  re- 
cessed portal  between  fanciful  columns.  His  head  is 
tonsured,  and  he  wears  ample  ecclesiastical  robes.  In 
his  hands  he  holds  a  globular  emblem.  Resting  against 
his  right  side  is  a  large  processional  cross,  the  foot  of 
which  stands  on  the  step  of  the  doorway,  with  the  name 
of  the  Saint  inscribed  in  front: 

*'Sanctus  Piatus" 

^  The  possibility  of  identifying  this  castellated  building  with 
the  Abbey  of  St.  Bertin  is  an  interesting  sidelight  on  the  question, 
and  will  be  dealt  with  later  (page  90). 


24  Eras>nus:  Humanist  and  Fainter 


The  backgro) 
of  hills  on  the  s 
Jtrxt: 


id  bounded  by  a  range 
distance  is  the  City  of 


yoss 

r  >'  in  rung,  one  of  whom  is 

to  iU  a..  ui.  ;i  Heavy  stick,  Christ  falls  be- 

.ae  large  Cross.    His  steps  are  di- 
-mer  'v,  fanciful  attire,  v  v«    -^it < 
I ;       -  round  kneels  ; 
\^mm^,.i}^m.^^         ^l^^^-'rtiB')  Mlt^^^^^^t  the 

■  io?i  ^ti6?^^j^a&^^^i^^^^  by  a  mediae- 
portal,  portcullis,  walls,  and 


lower 

On  the  b;: 
tion  in  gris  : 
cessed  port 
tonsured,  anu 
his  hands  he  h( 
his  right  side 
which  stands  oij 
of  the  Saint  inscribed  in  from 


full  length  representa- 
stands  within  a  re- 
r       His  head  is 
KibUcal  robes.  In 
Resting  against 
ross,  the  foot  of 
vay,  with  the  name 


'The  possibility  of  ir\f-r^^\fvwrr-  thts  castellated  building  with 
bbev  of  St.  1  (;  sidelight  on  the  question, 


Description  of  the  Triptych 


25 


This  Saint,  Priest  and  Martyr,  was  born  at  Benevento 
in  Italy.  A  zealous  monk,  he  went  to  Tournay  and 
preached  there  nine  weeks,  founding  in  due  time  the 
Church  of  Notre  Dame  of  Tournai.  He  was  crowned 
with  martyrdom  A.D.  286.  His  body  was  enshrined 
in  the  Collegiate  church  which  bears  his  name  at  Seclin, 
a  village  between  Lille  and  Tournai.  During  the  inva- 
sion of  the  Normans  the  relics  of  S.S.  Bavo,  Wandrille, 
Aubert,  Wulfran,  Wasnulf,  Piatus,  Bainus,  Winnoc,  and 
Austreberte  were  conveyed  to  St.  Omer  and  there  se- 
cured for  forty  years,  according  to  the  Chronicle  of  the 
Normans  in  Duchesne,  An.  846.  The  relics  of  St.  Pia- 
tus were  in  another  invasion  conveyed  to  Chartres,  and 
in  part  still  remain  there  in  the  Collegiate  Church  of  the 
Canons.® 

®  The  chapel  of  St.  Piatus  at  Chartres  is  reached  by  a  staircase 
on  the  south  side  of  the  Central  chapel  of  the  Apse.  Over  the 
door  that  gives  access  to  it  is  a  XIV  Century  grisaille  representa- 
tion of  St.  Piatus  in  ecclesiastical  robes.  There  still  remains  at 
Tournai  an  XI  Century  church  dedicated  to  this  saint.  In  the 
famous  tapestries  woven  at  Arras  in  1402  by  Pierre  Fere  for 
Toussaint  Prier,  who  presented  them  to  the  cathedral  at  Tournai, 
the  history  of  St.  Piatus  and  St.  Eleutherius  is  told  in  picturesque 
detail.  The  body  of  the  former  is  borne  to  Seclin,  and  there  heals 
the  sick.  We  see  also  ^'Comment  Saint  Piat  vint  a  Tournai  pre- 
hier  le  foy  (precher  la  Poi)."  Elsewhere  this  saint  is  rarely  met 
with.  But  he  may  be  represented,  (1)  carrying  his  own  head 
which  has  been  cut  off;  (2)  with  his  body  pierced  with  nails;  (3) 
with  a  book  in  his  right  hand  ;  or  (4)  with  a  maniple  on  his  left 
wrist.  In  view  of  the  emblems  by  which  he  may  be  identified,  and 
the  difficulty  of  determining  the  exact  nature  of  the  object  he 
holds  in  this  picture,  we  may  suggest  that  its  contents  are  intended 


26  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 

Sinister,  or  Right,  Wing 
The  Deposition 

The  body  of  Christ  redines  on  the  ground  and  is  sup- 
ported by  Joseph  of  Arimathaea,  and  the  Marys  who  be- 
moan their  loss.  From  the  background  approaches 
Nicodemus  holding  a  vase  in  his  right  hand.  Further 
back  on  the  steeply  rising  Calvary  the  two  thieves  are 
still  in  their  bodily  anguish.  Against  the  sky-line  may 
be  discerned  a  gibbet  on  the  one  side,  and  the  malefactor's 
wheel  on  the  other. 

The  back  of  this  wing  is  inscribed : 
"S.  Vince:ntius'' 

The  Saint  holds  an  open  book  in  his  right  hand,  and 
the  palm  branch  of  a  martyr  in  his  left.  A  Deacon  and 
Martyr  (circa  304),  he  is  most  often  rendered  with  a 
book  and  a  palm  branch,  but  he  may  appear  with  two 
ewers,  a  crow  and  a  millstone.  He  was  specially  vener- 
ated at  Tarbes,  as  the  Apostle  of  the  South  of  France. 

In  the  arch  above  the  portals  are  two  groups  of 
winged  putti  who  grasp  the  thin  loose-falling  ends  of  a 
wreath  of  foliage,  caught  up  in  the  centre  and  drawn 

to  symbolize  perpetual  life.  It  is  thus  contrasted  with  the  cross 
that  stands  for  suffering.  We  might  have  expected  to  see  this 
saint  accompanied  by  St.  Eleutherius,  his  fellow  patron  saint  of 
Tournai.  The  latter  is  not  to  be  confused  with  the  saint  of  the 
same  name  who  was  one  of  the  companions  of  Dionysius,  or  St. 
Denis,  of  Paris,  who  usually  carries  his  own  head.  St.  Eleu- 
therius of  Tournai  may  hold  a  scourge,  a  heated  oven,  or  the 
model  of  a  church. 


26  hrasi/.As.  u  unui/iist  and  Painter 


Sinister,  or  Right,  Wing 
The  Deposition 

The  body  of  Christ  reclines  on  the  ground  and  is  sup- 
ported by  J  oseph  of  Arim.  nd  the  Marys  who  be- 
moan their  loss.  From  lir  rround  approaches 
Nicodemus  holding  a  vase  in  i.i^  ;  nd.  Further 
back  on  the  steeply  rising  Calvary  '  ieves  are 
still  in  their  bodily  anguish.  Aprs  t  ine  may 
be  discerned  a  gibbet  on  the  one  si  'factor's 
wheel  on  the  other. 

The  back  of  this  wing  is  inscribed : 

"S.  ViNCENTlUS" 

The  Saint  holds  an  open  book  in  his  right  hand,  and 
the  palm  branch  fif ^^ffi)ii^^'iii'^fii^  left.  A  Deacon  and 
Martyr  (circa  304),  he  is  most  often  rendered  with  a 
book  and  a  palm  branch,  but  he  may  appear  with  two 
ewers,  a  crow  and  a  millstone.  He  was  specially  \  - 
ated  at  Tarbes,  as  the  Apostle  of  the  South  of  France. 

In  the  arch  above  the  portals         '        .  v 


winged  putti  who  grasp  the  thin  !  a 
wreath  of  foliage,  caiu      \in  in  ?)wn 


to  symbolize  perpetual  life.    j  .  >  >         c  .  .  u^s 

that  stands  for  suffering.    We  might  hav  ♦  see  this 

saint  accompanied  by  St.  Eleutherius.  ■  1  saint  of 

Tournai.    The  latter  is  xiot  to  be  cont^  .int  of  the 


same  name  who  was  one  of  the  companions  oi  Dioiiy^ius,  or  St. 
Denis,  of  Paris,  who  usually  carries  his  own  head  St  Eleu- 
therius of  Tournai  may  hold  a  scourge,  a  heated  oven,  or  the 
model  of  a  church. 


Description  of  the  Triptych 


27 


outwards  at  the  sides.  This  motif  is  perhaps  best  ex- 
empHfied  in  Flemish  art  in  Gherard  David's  "Judgment  of 
Cambyses/'  of  1498.  It  is  also  found  in  religious  paint- 
ings by  Memlinc.  It  was,  doubtless,  introduced  into 
Netherlandish  art  from  Italy,  and  in  some  way  derived 
from  the  decoration  of  sarcophagi  there  recently  exca- 
vated. It,  of  course,  occurs  in  Andrea  Mantegna's  San 
Zeno  altarpiece. 

This  triptych,  which  contains  so  much  fine  colour,  is 
on  wood.  The  centre  panel  measures  45  inches  by  33 
inches  (1.16  x  0.84),  and  the  wings  45  inches  by  13% 
inches  (1.16x0.34)  each. 

Where  is  there  a  similar  work  attested  by  such  a  sig- 
nature or  even  tentatively  accepted  by  the  critics?  We 
must  postulate  that  its  author  was  the  great  Humanist 
and  Scholar  Erasmus.  As  we  shall  see,  he  was  known 
to  Houbraken  and  others  to  have  been  a  painter  in  early 
manhood.  Yet  today  few  would,  without  investigation, 
think  of  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam  in  this  role. 


1 


III 

THE  PEDIGREE  ESTABLISHED 


Ill 

THE  PEDIGREE  ESTABLISHED 

The  present  picture  was  until  recently  in  private  pos- 
session in  the  South  of  France.  When  it  arrived  in  this 
country,  it  was  in  a  dirty,  although  absolutely  pure, 
state.  Not  until  after  the  removal  of  the  surface  dirt 
did  the  signature  and  the  intrinsic  merits  of  the  painting 
become  visible.  It  was  said  by  its  late  owner  to  have 
been  formerly  in  the  collection  of  the  late  King  of  Portu- 
gal, and  tradition  says  that  at  the  time  of  the  Napoleonic 
wars  it  was  removed  from  Antwerp. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  placing  reliance  on  the  date 
1 501  which  we  find  on  the  shield  in  the  centre  panel. 
Erasmus  may,  however,  have  been  engaged  upon  it 
before  then,  and  in  consequence  of  his  multifarious  liter- 
ary researches  have  only  completed  it  in  that  year.  As 
we  shall  see  (pages  53-55),  at  one  time  or  another  during 
that  busy  year  he  was  at  Courtembrune,  St.  Omer,  Lou- 
vain,  Tournahens,  Steen,  and  elsewhere. 

The  slow  space  at  which  Netherlandish  artists  of  the 
XV  Century  proceeded,  even  when  their  attention  was 
concentrated  upon  a  given  task,  is  proverbial.  The 
severe  restrictions  under  which  they  worked,  the  sound 
technique  of  their  panel  pictures,  the  honesty  of  their 


32 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


labours,  and  the  care  with  which  their  work,  when  com- 
pleted, was  valued  must  have  in  some  degree  affected 
Erasmus  also.  But,  surely,  none  but  the  indefatigable 
student  that  we  know  him  to  have  been  would  have  at- 
tempted to  fill  in  his  leisure  hours  by  painting.  Still  he 
was  then  most  anxious  to  increase  his  slender  means  to 
further  his  scholastic  researches. 

In  spite  of  the  contradictory  opinions  of  ancient  writ- 
ers and  modern  critics,  careful  research  will  show  the 
history  of  this  unique  painting  during  the  XIX  Century. 
For  unique  it  certainly  is  today,  although  we  must  not 
imagine  that  other  pictures  from  the  same  hand  did  not 
exist  in  the  XVI  and  perhaps  XVII  Century,  when  so 
many  precious  works  of  art  perished  without  leaving 
any  trace  of  the  esteem  in  which  they  were  held. 

There  can  be  no  question  whatever  that  this  is  the 
triptych  on  wood,  measuring  ii6  cm  x  84  cm  (exactly 
the  right  measurement)  which  belonged  to  Comte 
d'Espinoy.  The  detailed  description  given  in  the  cata- 
logue shows  that  our  picture  was  that  belonging  to  the 
Comte,  "dont  la  vente  aura  lieu  au  domicile  du  defunt, 
rue  du  Regard  5,  Versailles,  Jan.  et  Fev.  1850.''  It  was 
in  fact  No.  437  in  the  sale  catalogue  which  pointed  out 
that  "des  soldats  et  deux  cavaliers  entourent  le  Cal- 
vaire.  L'un  des  deux  cavaliers  porte,  attache  sur  Tepaule, 
un  bouclier  sur  lequel  est  representee  une  tete  de  bronze 


Pedigree  of  the  Triptych 


33 


avec  cette  inscription:  'e:rasmus.  p.  1501."'  Surely, 
nothing  could  be  more  precise. 

The  catalogue  (which  included  951  paintings)  adds 
that  "la  rarete  des  Tableaux  d'Erasme  rend  celui-ci  ex- 
tremement  precieux.  Cette  composition  capitale  est 
d'ailleurs  d'un  merite  incontestable,  et  peutetre  est-ce 
celle  qui  est  mentionnee  par  les  biographes  sous  le  titre 
du  Calvaire''  ® 

The  sale  lasted  twelve  days,  and  the  introduction  to 
the  catalogue  tells  us  that  Hyacinthe  Frangois  Joseph, 
Comte  d'Espinoy,  Lieutenant  General,  Grand  Croix  de 
rOrdre  de  St.  Louis,  grand  officier  de  la  Legion  d'hon- 
neur,  was  born  at  Valenciennes  March  22,  1764.  As  a 
young  soldier  he  was  received  by  the  Buonaparte  family 
at  Ajaccio  and  so  met  Napoleon,  then  a  second  lieuten- 
ant in  the  ist  regiment  of  the  Artillery  of  La  Fere,  who 
happened  to  be  home  on  leave.  The  friendship  then 
made  lasted  for  a  great  many  years.  They  were  together 
at  the  memorable  siege  of  Toulon  in  1793.  There  exist 
several  letters  which  during  the  Year  IV  of  the  Re- 
public passed  between  these  two  young  soldiers  and  Ber- 
thier.    The  Comte  died  in  1848,  at  the  age  of  86. 

It  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  the  compilers  of 
the  catalogue  to  remark  that  the  Comte  traced  back 

^  If  the  reference  is  to  that  which  belonged  to  Musius,  we  do 
not  agree.  We  deal  with  that  point  later  in  this  monograph 
(p.  46).  I  now  find  that  a  portion  of  that  sale  catalogue  is  on 
the  back  of  the  picture. 


34  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


to  Netherlandish  ancestors.  Pierre  de  Melun,  Prince 
d'Espinoi,  Marquis  de  Roubaix,  Baron  d'Antoing  de 
Werchin,  et  Connetable  et  Senechal  hereditaire  de  Hain- 
ault,  was  a  son  of  Hugues  created  Prince  d'Espinoi  in 
1545.  After  Tournai  was  besieged  by  the  Prince  of 
Parma,  d'Espinoi  went  to  Antwerp,  and  eventually  re- 
tired to  France  where  he  died  1594.  The  residence  of 
the  family  at  Antwerp  as  far  back  as  the  XVI  Century  is, 
doubtless,  the  origin  of  the  tradition  which,  as  we  saw 
(page  31),  has  accompanied  this  picture. 

Guillaume,  Prince  d'Espinoi,  Connetable  de  Flandre, 
Seneschal  de  Hainault,  possessed  the  seigneurie  de  Ron- 
court  about  1 61 7.  According  to  Rietstap,  members  of 
the  Melun  family  were  Comtes  d'Espinoy  from  Nov.  28, 
1 5 14,  Princes  d'Espinoi  from  1545,  and  Dues  et  Pairs  de 
Joyeuse  in  Oct.,  1814.  He  gives  their' arms  as:  D'Azur 
a  'sept  besants  d'or  ^,  3,  et  i;  au  chef  du  meme.  These 
are  exactly  the  same  as  those  assigned  to  Frangois  de 
Melun,  31st  provost  of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Bertin  at  St. 
Omer.^^  It  would  not  have  surprised  us  to  find  these 
besants  d'or  (which  may  have  been  lemons,  treated  her- 
aldically  and  having  the  appearance  of  circles)  worked 
into  this  picture.  Thus  they  might  have  been  sought  for 
in  the  ornamental  shield  on  the  left  fore-arm  of  the 
mounted  soldier  to  the  right  of  the  Cross,  or  even  on 

See  Tableau  des  Armoiries  in  Wallet's  "Ancienne  Cathedrale 
de  St.  Omerr 


Pedigree  of  the  Triptych 


35 


the  collar  of  the  whippet.  (An  instance  of  the  decora- 
tion of  a  dog's  collar  with  the  arms  of  its  owner  is  found 
in  Gherard  David's  well  known  altarpiece  in  the  Nation- 
al Gallery.)  Had  these  besants  d'or  been  so  introduced 
they  would,  of  course,  have  indicated  that  Frangois  de 
Melun  (or  one  of  his  near  relations)  was  the  donor  of 
the  picture.  Frangois  v/as  son  of  Jean  Vicomte  de 
Melun;  he  succeeded  Jean  de  Bourgogne  (one  of  the 
bastards  of  Philip  le  Bon,  Duke  of  Burgundy)  as  31st 
provost  in  1499.  Designated  Bishop  of  Cambrai  in 
1502,  he  became  Bishop  of  Arras  in  1509.  From  151 5 
he  also  occupied  the  see  of  Therouanne.  He  was  also 
provost  of  Lille.  He  died  Nov.  23,  1521.  We  must 
not  forget  that  the  Melun  and  d'Espinoy  families  recog- 
nized each  other  as  being  of  the  same  house,  and  the 
similarity  of  the  arms  bears  this  out.^^  Their  devise 
was  Virtus  et  Honor,  and  their  cri  d'armes:  "a  Moy 
Melun.''  It  is  clear  also  that  they  acted  up  to  their 
family  motto.  Nor  must  it  be  thought  that  these  refer- 
ences to  the  Melun  and  d'Espinoy  families  are  merely  a 
side  issue  in  regard  to  the  importance  to  be  attached  to 
this  newly  found  triptych.  For,  as  we  shall  see,  one  of 
Erasmus's  patrons  was  the  Bishop  of  Cambrai,  whose 

See  Woodward:  ''Heraldry J'  i,  358,  and  Mailhol:  "Diction- 
naire/'  i,  1127.  See  also  "Armorial  de  Tournai  et  du  Tournaisis" 
in  "Memoires  de  la  Societe  Historique  de  Tournai,^'  1859,  vi,  286 ; 
vol.  i,  1853,  published  forty-three  "Lettres  inedites  de  Pierre  de 
Meleun,"  dated  between  1579  and  1583. 


36 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


brother  was  Abbot  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Bertin  at  St. 
Omer  which  the  future  Humanist  certainly  visited  of- 
ten in  1 500- 1 50 1.  But  exactly  to  what  extent  that  city 
and  this  picture  were  related  at  that  date  cannot  unfor- 
tunately be  now  stated  with  precision. 

The  city  of  St.  Omer  (which  long  formed  part  of 
Flanders,  but  is  now  in  the  Pas  de  Calais  in  northern 
France)  takes  its  name  from  St.  Andomare,  or  St.  Omer, 
Bishop  of  Therouanne  who  in  the  VII  century  founded 
there  a  monastery  named  after  him.  St.  Omer  was  as- 
sisted in  his  apostolic  labours  by  Mommelin,  Bertin,  and 
Bertrand,  brother  monks  from  the  monastery  of  Lux- 
euil.  And  as  the  years  went  by,  the  city  of  St.  Omer 
resisted  several  attacks  by  the  English,  notably  in  1337- 
1339,  and  by  the  French.  Priestly  activities  were  prac- 
tised in  the  monastery  of  St.  Omer  by  St.  Bertin,  who 
in  640  founded  the  Abbey  which  came  to  be  known  after 
him.  We  are,  therefore,  not  altogether  surprised  that 
in  the  XVIII  Century  the  priority  of  date  of  St.  Omer's 
foundation  and  that  of  St.  Bertin's  came  to  be  warmly 
disputed  by  the  local  authorities  and  partisans. 

But  to  return  to  sure  ground  in  regard  to  the  picture's 
history.  We  are  fortunate  in  having  found  an  article  on 
'X'Unique  Tableau  d'Erasme  Retrouve.'' The  writ- 

Journal  des  Beaux  Arts,  Bruxelles,  Dec.  15,  1873,  p.  183. 
Ten  years  later  Siret  in  his  Dictionnaire  cited  this  article,  and  ex- 
tended his  earlier  view. 


Pedigree  of  the  Triptych 


37 


er  says  that  the  picture  was  then  in  the  care  of  Heris, 
expert  of  the  Brussels  Museum,  to  whom  it  had  been 
sent  from  Lisbon  to  be  cleaned.  He  refers  to  the  signa- 
ture and  date  but  is  in  error,  as  we  shall  show  (page 
48),  in  agreeing  with  Kramm  that  this  is  the  picture 
which  was  in  the  cabinet  of  C.  Ploos  van  Amstel  and  in- 
cluded in  that  sale  in  1800. 

These  are  the  only  ascertainable  facts  in  the  history 
during  the  last  century  or  so  of  the  "unique  tableau 
d^Erasme''  once  more  "retrouve/'  It  was  imported  into 
this  country  early  in  191 7  by  M.  Kleinberger. 


IV 

ERASMUS:  HUMANIST  AND  PAINTER 


IV 

ERASMUS:   HUMANIST  AND  PAINTER 


It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  the  father  of 
Erasmus  was  Gerhard  de  Praet""^  of  Gouda,  a  man  of 
much  vivacity  and  sound  scholarship.  His  mother  was 
Margaret,  daughter  of  a  physician  of  Zevenbergen. 

The  father  went  to  Rome  to  earn  a  living  by  his  pen, 
by  transcribing  books.  For,  being  an  excellent  penman, 
''there  was  at  that  time  a  great  deal  of  that  sort  of  bus- 
iness to  do."  Printing  had  not  yet  come  into  common 
use.  The  parents  were  never  legally  united  in  wedlock, 
a  stigma  from  which  Erasmus  was  at  the  age  of  fifty 
anxious  to  obtain  relief  by  Papal  dispensation.^* 

Feugere :  "Brasme:  etude  sur  sa  Vie,"  claims  that  this  is  a 
"mot  hollandais  qui  signifie  facetieux." 

^*  Surely,  no  one  would  today  give  any  credence  to  the  unsup- 
ported fiction  indulged  in  by  Charles  Reade  in  his  ''Crickc^oLL  the 
Hearth"  to  the  effect  that  the  marriage  ceremony  had  been  per- 
formed in  part  when  it  was  wrongfully  interrupted.  That  his- 
torical novelist  writes: 

"The  next  morning,  at  ten  o'clock,  Gerard  and  Margaret  were 
in  the  Church  of  Sevenbergen,  he  radiant  with  joy,  she  with 
blushes.  .  .  But  ere  the  cure  had  uttered  a  single  word  of  the 
sacred  rite,  a  harsh  voice  cried :  'Forbear.' 

"  'Forbear,  man,'  cried  the  Priest. 

"  'There  is  no  impiety,  Father.  This  young  man  would  marry 
against  his  father's  will,  and  his  father  has  prayed  our  burgo- 


42  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


The  boy  was  in  these  circumstances  born  at  Rotter- 
dam^^ on  October  28,  1466^®  ex  illicit 0  et  ut  t^met  in- 
cesto  damnatoque  coitu. 

It  has  come  to  be  accepted  that  Erasmus  was  a  name 


master  to  deal  with  him  according  to  the  law.  L<et  him  deny  it, 
if  he  can/ 

"At  this  moment  Margaret  uttered  a  cry  of  despair." 

It  is  perhaps  some  slight  consolation  to  read  of  Erasmus,  bom 
in  due  course,  that  "the  yellow-haired  laddie,  Gerard  Gerardson 
(sic),  belongs  not  to  Fiction  but  to  History." 

We  do  not  forget  that  the  same  writer  of  romantic  literature 
seeks  to  portray,  for  the  benefit  of  his  credulous  readers, 
"Margaret,  sister  and  survivor  of  the  brothers  van  Eyck."  But 
whether  John  van  Eyck's  putative  sister  ever  existed  is  a  matter 
of  much  doubt.  The  lady  —  for  whom  a  Christian  name  was  not 
at  first  hazarded  —  is  not  mentioned  in  any  document  earlier  than 
1565.  There  is  little  doubt  that  she  was  merely  an  airy  concep- 
tion of  the  over-fecund  imagination  of  the  curious  poet-painter 
De  Heere.  (See  Weale  and  Brockwell:  ''The  Van  Bycks,* 
1912,  p.  22).  This  invention,  amplified  by  Vaernewyck,  in  time 
brought  about  the  attribution  to  Margaret  van  Eyck  of  a  "Ma- 
donna" in  the  National  Gallery  (no.  708)  which  in  recent  years 
came  to  be  catalogued  as  "Flemish  School."  Thus  Margaret,  the 
name  of  John  van  Eyck's  zvife  and  not  his  sister,  was  officially 
regarded  as  having  "painted  in  miniature"  and  possessed  other  ac- 
complishments. All  these  assumptions  have  long  ago  been  dis- 
proved. (See  the  present  writer  in  "Athenaeum,"  April  18,  1908, 
p.  484). 

The  house  of  his  birth  in  the  Breede  Kerk  bears  the  inscrip- 
tion :  "Haec  est  parva  domus,  magnus  qua  natus  Erasmus." 

^®  We  may,  without  much  risk,  trust  the  researches  of  Richter, 
and  accept  1466  as  the  year  of  birth.  De  anno  quo  natus  est  apud 
Batavos  non  constat.  In  fact  the  previous,  as  well  as  the  follow- 
ing, year  has  been  put  forward  by  some  writers.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  the  date  is  wrongly  given  on  the  pedestal  of  the 
statue  erected  in  his  memory  at  Rotterdam :  "Geboren  tot  Rotter- 
dam den  28  Octob.  1467."  The  present  bronze  statue  was  not 
erected  until  1622;  it  replaced  one  of  stone  erected  in  1557,  and 
that  again  was  a  substitute  for  the  original  wooden  statue  decreed 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter  43 

fancifully  devised  by  its  bearer  and  that  he  in  conformity 
with  the  pedantic  taste  of  the  time,  among  men  of  let- 
ters, assumed  names  of  Greek  and  Latin  etymology. 
Thus  he  would,  it  is  urged,  translate,  Gerhard  or  Gerard, 
the  Christian  name  of  his  father  and  himself,  into  its 
classical  equivalents.  Gerhard  signifying,  in  Dutch, 
Beloved — from  Gieren,  to  desire  —  would  be  a  suitable 
name  for  a  love-child.  It  would  thus  be  changed  by  the 
son,  when  he  came  to  "y^ars  of  discretion,''  into  Desid- 
erius  in  Latin  and  Erasmus  in  Greek."  This  future 
Homo  Incomparabilis  must  have  reached  such  years 
almost  by  the  time  he  learned  to  walk.  He  was  "young 
in  years,  but  in  sage  council  old." 

Possibly  this  choice  of  his  own  names,  if  a  man  can 
bestow  a  name  on  himself,  is  traceable  to  an  old  fable 
slavishly  copied  by  many  of  his  biographers.  He  may, 
however,  have  been  given  at  his  baptism  the  name  of 
Erasmus,  after  the  Saint  who  was  martyred  under  Dio- 
cletian. For  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  that, 
but  not  a  later,  period  in  the  Netherlands  he  would 
probably  be  baptised  within  twenty-four  hours  of 
his   birth.    Subsequently,   we   are   told,   he  became 

upon  by  the  civic  authorities  of  Rotterdam  in  1549.  The  date  is 
given  correctly  as  1466  at  Basel,  where  he  died.  The  error  occurs 
again  in  Thieme-Becker's  "Lexikon"  1914,  vol.  x,  p.  588.  Eras- 
mus was  sure  of  the  day,  but  not  of  the  year,  of  his  birth. 

In  much  the  same  way  the  name  of  John  Reuchlin,  "the 
father  of  modem  Bible  criticism,"  became  Graecicized  into  Cap- 
nio,  and  Swartzerde  into  Melanchthon. 


44 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


aware  that  epao-ixto;  —  Erasmius,  not  Erasmus  —  *'was 
the  name  he  wanted/'  In  fact  it  was  given  to  ihis 
godson,  the  son  of  Johannes  Froben,  the  printer  of  Basel 
of  whom  we  are  later  on  to  hear  so  often.  Roteroda- 
mus,  the  appellative  he  afterwards  added  from  the  place 
of  his  birth,  would  more  accurately  be  rendered,  as  we 
think  today,  Roterodamensis.  It  is  not  of  much  mo- 
ment, however,  for,  as  one  American  critic  facetiously 
puts  it,  he  was  in  any  circumstances  able  to  *'make  a 
name  for  himself/' 

We  must  pass  in  review  the  outstanding  facts  of  his 
career  in  order  to  recognize  how  they  throw  light  on 
him  as  a  painter  in  his  youth  and  early  manhood.  Hav- 
ing commenced  his  studies  at  Gouda  at  the  extremely 
early  age  of  four,  he  became  a  chorister  in  the  cathedral 
of  Utrecht.  Utrecht  was,  of  course,  an  art  centre  in 
quite  early  times." 

^®  A  cathedral  city,  it  would  follow  the  traditions  of  other 
ecclesiastical  centers  in  Germany  as  well  as  in  the  Netherlands, 
and  thus  exert  an  influence  on  artistic  activities.  We  judge  this 
from  the  plates  in  G.  van  Kalcken's  "Peintures  Bcclesiastiques  du 
Moyen  Age,''  1910. 

We  have  no  record  of  any  individual  native  artist  working  at 
Utrecht  in  those  early  times,  but  it  is  significant  that  the  tower  of 
St.  Martin  in  that  city  is  found  in  the  background  of  the  Rolin 
altarpiece  of  the  Louvre  as  well  as  in  the  centre  panel  of  the 
"Adoration  of  the  Lamb/'  by  the  Van  Eycks  at  Ghent.  The  in- 
fluence, however^  transitory,  of  those  two  brothers  would  have  its 
mark.  Moreover,  it  may  yet  be  shown  that  Hubert  in  early  years 
worked  at  Utrecht,  as  well  as  at  Maastricht,  Haarlem  and  The 
Hague  —  in  Holland  as  well  as  in  Flanders.    John  van  Eyck  was 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


45 


Erasmus,  or  Gerrit  Gerritz  as  we  may  in  accord- 
ance with  civic  tradition  call  him  in  these  early  years, 
was  sent  at  the  age  of  nine  to  a  school  kept  by  a  religious 
brotherhood  not  bound  by  vows,  at  Deventer.  Much 
later  in  life  he  complained  of  this  school  that  the  teach- 
ing and  the  books  were  bad,  in  fact  it  was  "still  in  the 
age  of  barbarism."  Alexander  Hegius,  the  master, 
coming  into  the  school-room  was  so  much  struck,  we 
read,  with  the  theme  that  the  boy  had  written  that  he 
assured  him  that,  if  he  would  persevere,  he  had  a  great 
future  as  a  scholar." 

At  the  age  of  twelve  the  boy  knew  Horace  and  Ter- 
ence by  heart.  His  mother,  for  whom  he  had  a  great 
affection,  died  of  the  plague  a  year  later.  It  has  been 
said  that  he  "tenait  de  sa  mere  une  delicatesse  physique 
et  morale  que  nous  retrouverons  dans  son  histoire;''  and 
in  that  respect  we  recall  the  early  years  and  the  sensitive 
temperament  of  his  contemporary  Raphael  who  also  lost 
his  mother  while  still  a  child. 

In  1480  he  was  placed  in  the  school  of  the  Collation- 
employed  at  The  Hague  from  October  24,  1422,  to  September 
11,  1424,  and  it  was  only  on  the  outbreak  of  war  that  he  left  Hol- 
land. 

Hegius,  writing  to  Agricola,  Dec.  17,  1484,  said  "my  school 
is  full  again  now,  but  in  summer  the  numbers  rather  fell  off. 
The  plague  which  killed  20  of  the  boys  drove  many  others  away, 
and  doubtless  kept  some  from  coming  to  us."  Erasmus  entered 
the  8th,  or  lowest,  class ;  when  he  left,  he  was  not  above  the  3rd. 
A  few  years  later  the  school  numbered  2200  boys ! 


46 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


ary  Brothers  at  Bois  -le-Duc,  and  seemed  destined  for  a 
monastic  life.  But  he  regarded  this  school,  as  he  tells 
us  later,  as  "a  very  seed-bed  of  monkery''  and  "as  a 
place  of  education  worthless/'  At  the  age  of  seventeen 
he  entered  as  a  novice  the  house  of  the  Canons  Regular 
of  St.  Augustine,  of  Emmaus,  at  Steen  near  Gouda.  He 
soon  formed  an  aversion  from  the  cloister's  irksome 
round  of  what  he  considered  mechanical  devotions.  It 
was  not  that  he  disliked  the  severities  of  a  pious  life,  but 
that  he  felt  he  had  no  vocation  for  devotional  exercises  in 
a  conventual  environment.  Consequently  he  began  more 
and  more  to  study  the  Ancient  Classics.  His  preoc- 
cupation had  been  in  the  main  with  religion.  What, 
therefore,  was  more  natural  than  that  he  should  now 
afford  himself  mental  relaxation  by  busying  himself  with 
painting?  We  read  that  in  1484  he  painted  a  picture 
of  "Christ  on  the  Cross,  with  Mary  and  St.  John."  This 
work  is  said  to  have  been  executed  "in  the  style  of  the 
old  Dutch  Masters"  and  to  have  been  long  in  the  mon- 
astery of  Emmaus,  called  Steyne,  near  Gouda.  It  is 
alleged  to  have  been  begun  as  early  as  1484.  Dirk 
Evertsz  van  Bleijswyck,  writing  in  1667,  was  probably 
the  earliest  to  record  such  a  picture  at  Delft.^°  Hou- 
braken  also  informs  us  of  its  being  in  the  esteemed  cab- 
inet of  Prior  Cornelius  Musius  at  Delft.^'  Weyerman 

20  "Beschryvinge  van  Delff  was  published  again  in  1674.  See 
p.  364  of  the  1729  edition. 

21  ''Nederlantsche  Konstschilders;'  1718,  i,  17-19.    See  p.  33. 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


47 


also  tells  of  it."  Martinet  and  others  refer  to  it  as  if  it 
were  a  miniature  painted  on  parchment.  Some  have 
urged  that  it  was  then  "the  only  remaining  one  by  Eras- 
mus and  more  remarkable  by  its  subject  than  for  its 
artistic  qualities.''  Descamps  has  recorded  that  Eras- 
mus retired  to  this  monastery  of  Emmaus  ''solely  for  its 
library,  which  was  the  finest  of  the  century/'  and  that 
there  Erasmus  "applied  himself  at  intervals  to  painting, 
in  which  he  succeeded  and  made  the  same  progress  as  in 
his  other  studies.  The  merit  of  his  pictures  is,"  he  adds, 
"attested  by  the  artists  of  the  time,  but  the  author  does 
not  believe  that  a  single  one  has  escaped  from  the  ruin  of 
that  house.  One  hardly  knows  today  where  it  was 
built.""  We  are  told  that  it  bore  the  following  two- 
lined  inscription,  a  hexameter  and  a  pentameter,  writ- 
ten, and  therefore  presumably  added,  by  Musius  to  the 
painting : 

"Haec  Desiderius,  ne  spernas,  Pinxit  Erasmus, 
Olim  in  Steinaeo  quando  latebat  Agro." 

("Despise  not  this  picture,  for  Erasmus  painted  it 
when  formerly  he  was  in  retirement  in  the  country  near 
Stein.") 

There  is  much  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  the  picture 
and  its  subsequent  whereabouts,  but  the  solution  of  the 

^^"Konstschilders/'  1729,  i,  194.  See  also  Bredius  and  H. 
de  Groot:^  ''Quellenstudien"  1893,  p.  121  and  p.  351;  also  Wurz- 
bach :  "Niederldndisches  Kunstler-Lexikon"  i,  494. 

23  Descamps:  *'Vie  des  Peintres/'  1753,  i,  22. 


48  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 

difficulty  may  perhaps  be  found  in  identifying  it  with  the 
"Crucifixion"  which  was  included  in  the  sale  of  the  Col- 
lection (No.  86)  of  Jacob  de  Wit,  at  Amsterdam,  on 
March  24,  1755,  was  then  sold  for  31  florins.  It 
was  there  stated  to  be  a  "genuine  picture  by  Erasmus," 
and  "perhaps  that  mentioned  by  Houbraken.''  ^* 

Certainly  this  was  not  the  painting  which  appeared 
in  the  sale  (No.  56)  of  C.  Ploos  van  Amstel,  in  1800, 
and  was  bought  by  "Calkoen''  for  15  florins.^^  It  was 
painted  "about  1 500,"  the  catalogue  tells  us,  and  meas- 
ured lo.o  by  75.^^  We  have  no  idea  as  to  what  has  since 
become  of  that  picture;  its  disappearance  justifies  our 
claim  that  the  painting  which  forms  the  subject  of  our 
monograph  is  his  only  extant  work. 

As  we  have  been  commenting  on  the  only  work  re- 
corded in  any  detail  to  have  been  executed  by  Erasmus 
in  the  monastery  of  Emmaus,  we  may  note  Amiel's  re- 

^*  Hoet  and  Terwesten :  ''Catalogus  van  schilderyen"  In 's  Gra- 
venhage,  1770,  p.  110.  See  also  Duplessis:  ''Ventes  de  tableaux/' 
§  293. 

25  Duplessis,  §  2132. 

2^  We  have  already  seen  that  Siret  endeavored  to  show  that 
this  triptych  (formerly  in  the  d'Espinoy  collection)  was  the  same 
as  that  of  the  Ploos  van  Amstel  cabinet.  He  only  went  into  the 
matter  superficially,  and  was  compelled  to  argue,  quite  unreason- 
ably, that  in  his  day  "the  wings  had  been  detached,  and  it  is  not 
known  what  has  become  of  them.'* 

See  Kramm:  ''Holl.  en  Vlaam.  Kunstschilders,"  1858,  ii,  432, 
went  more  fully  into  the  question  than  anyone  else.  It  is  a  pity 
that  Siret  should  have  sought  to  confuse  the  issue,  apparently  for 
his  own  personal  satisfaction. 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


49 


mark  that  he  thus  occupied  himself  "a  titre  de  delasse- 
ment."" 

By  this  time  the  earlier  stages  of  an  approaching  de- 
cline were  visible  in  the  art  of  Bruges,  but  they  were 
marked  by  signs  of  a  Renaissance  Spirit  at  Alost,  Lou- 
vain,  Antwerp,  Brussels,  Audenard,  and  elsewhere.  In- 
deed, Erasmus  was  moving  in  the  very  midst  of  a  Ren- 
aissance not  merely  in  literature  but  in  painting. 

His  was  a  complex  personality  and  on  April  25,  1492, 
under  exactly  what  circumstances  we  do  not  know,  he 
was  ordained  priest.  Becoming  known  to  the  Bishop 
of  Cambrai,  he  left  the  monastery  of  Emmaus  in  1493, 
after  residing  there  ten  years.  In  1496  he  entered  Mon- 
taigu  College,  under  the  shadow  of  the  monastery  of  Ste. 
^Genevieve,  at  Paris.  At  Montaigu  the  students  had  to 
observe  the  fasts  and  the  services  of  the  church,  and  a 
non-compliance  with  the  rules  was  followed  by  punish- 
ment. They  had  to  sweep  the  floors  and  do  all  kinds  of 
servile  work.  The  fare  was  very  bad,  meat  was  not 
known,  the  eggs  were  rotten,  the  water  bad,  the  wine 
wretched,  and  the  bread  scanty.  Bedroom  accommoda- 
tion was  even  worse,  according  to  the  accounts  that  have 
come  down  to  us,  and  the  conditions  were  so  unsanitary 
that  infection  and  disease  were  almost  inevitable.^^ 

In  the  XV  Century,  a  poor  scholar,  anxious  to  make  a 

2^  "Brasme,  un  Libre  Penseur  du  xvi.®  Siecle,"  1889,  p.  27. 
Faulkner :  ''Erasmus,  the  Scholar." 


50  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 

career  and  a  position  for  himself,  would  naturally  look 
round  for  a  patron  who  should  be  liberal  and  not  over 
exacting.  In  such  circumstances,  and  at  this  moment 
in  his  rapid  development,  the  Marchioness  de  Vere,  who 
resided  at  the  castle  of  Tournahens  in  Holland  with  her 
tutor  Battus,  came  into  the  life  of  Erasmus.  He  was 
to  receive  an  annual  pension  of  lOO  florins,  but  it  was 
irregularly  paid.  Moreover,  his  patron  the  Bishop  of 
Cambrai,  whose  brother  was  abbot  of  the  monastery  of 
St.  Bertin  at  St.  Omer,  failed  in  his  obligations  to  Eras- 
mus who  then  returned  to  Paris.  He  was  often  in  finan- 
cial straits  and  obliged  to  eke  out  a  rather  unpleasant 
existence  by  taking  pupils.  Fortunately  among  them 
was  the  young  Lord  Mount  joy  who  settled  on  him  a  pen- 
sion of  lOO  crowns,  which  apparently  continued  to  be 
paid  regularly  for  many  years  to  come.  It  was  in 
Mountjoy's  train  that  he  now  visited  England  for  the 
first  time.  The  story  told  of  the  first  meeting  of  Eras- 
mus and  Sir  Thomas  More,  even  if  not  verified,  is  ben 
trovato.  The  former,  captivated,  at  the  Lord  May- 
or's table  in  London,  with  More's  conversational  powers, 
exclaimed:  ''Aut  tu  es  Morus,  aut  Nullus."  Not  to  be 
outdone.  More  retorted :  "Aut  tu  Erasmus  es,  aut  Dia- 
bolus.''^^ 

2^  Henri  de  Berghes,  Bishop  of  Cambrai,  had  had  the  Abbey 
of  St.  Omer  in  his  eye  for  his  younger  brother  Antoine.  But  the 
monks  elected  a  certain  Jacques  dti  Val.    The  Bishop,  however. 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


Latin,  of  course,  was  then  almost  the  vernacular  of  the 
best  and  most  cultivated  people  in  Europe,  and  by  this 
time  Erasmus  had  acquired  fine  power  of  expression  in 
that  tongue.  To  the  end  of  his  days  he  contemned  mod- 
ern languages  as  "uncouth  barbarous  dialects/'  In  such 
circumstances  he  was  well  acquainted  with  More,  Colet, 
Groginus,  Linacre,  and  Latimer.  But  in  January,  1500, 
he  left  Oxford  for  Dover  en  route  for  the  continent,  al- 
though he  would  never  have  done  so  if  Colet  had  had  his 
way. 

He  traveled  in  France  and  Holland,  but  circumstances 
and  uncertain  prospects  troubled  him.  We  may  judge 
of  this  from  one  of  his  letters : 

"The  Abbot  of  St.  Bertin  writes  to  me  in  terms  which 
show  he  likes  me  best  at  a  distance.  In  the  Bishop  I 
have  been  unlucky  enough  to  find  an  anfi-Maecenas,  who 
not  only  will  not  help  me  but  grudges  me  my  success.''  ^° 

But  he  still  had  great  hopes  of  the  Lady  de  Vere,  and 
persistently  sought  the  aid  of  the  tutor  Battus,  who  had 
the  ear  of  the  lady,  to  obtain  for  him  all  he  could.  He 
wrote : 

"Go  yourself  to  the  Lady.  Tell  her  that  I  am  in  ex- 
treme distress,  that  Erasmus  will  do  more  credit  to  her 

succeeded  in  having  that  election  annulled  —  probably  on  some 
technicality  —  to  the  benefit  of  his  brother  who  was  thus  violently 
installed  in  Oct.,  1493.  See  P.  S.  Allen:  "Age  of  Erasmus;' 
1914,  p.  66. 

*° Given  by  Froude :  '%ife  and  Letters  of  Erasmus"  p.  60. 


52  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 

liberality  than  the  theologians  whom  she  has  taken  into 
her  favour.  They  can  only  preach  sermons:  I  am 
writing  books  which  will  live  for  ever.  They  address 
single  congregations :  I  shall  be  read  by  all  the  world. 
Theologians  there  will  always  be  in  abundance :  the  like 
of  me  comes  but  once  in  centuries.  Do  not  be  shy.  Do 
not  mind  telling  her  a  lie  or  two  in  a  friend's  interest. 
I  shall  have  to  abandon  literature  altogether,  if  I  cannot 
obtain  means  from  one  quarter  or  another  to  go  on  with 
it  properly.  No  one  can  write  as  he  should  without 
freedom  from  sordid  cares.  How  many  ignorant  asses 
roll  in  money.  I  am  working  hard  enough.  I  spare 
nothing,  not  even  my  health.  To  please  my  friends,  I 
compose  for  one;  I  read  for  another,  I  correct  for  a 
third ;  while  I  compose,  read,  and  correct  for  myself  too. 
I  toil  over  Greek  texts.  I  want  books  and  must  have 
help  to  get  them.  Anyway  I  must  have  a  few  crowns 
from  you.  I  starve  for  books.  Leisure  I  have  none, 
and  I  am  out  of  health  besides." 

The  general  tone  of  this  letter  is  far  from  pleasant, 
not  so  much  from  its  self-conceit  as  its  importunity.  Yet 
it  is  to  be  condoned  in  so  brilliant  a  scholar  at  odds  with 
the  world  and  out  of  health.^^  It  is  noteworthy  that,  al- 
though then  unable  to  procure  the  means  of  prosecuting 

Given  in  full  by  Froude,  p.  70. 

This  letter  rather  recalls  the  perfectly  accurate,  if  apparently 
boastful,  letter  of  Leonardo  to  Lodovico  il  Moro  as  to  his  various 
abilities. 


/ 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


53 


his  studies,  he  was  prophetically  sure  of  himself,  his  aims 
and  his  future  success. 

At  one  time  he  writes  to  Colet: 

"I  struggle  to  devote  myself  to  the  study  of  sacred 
literature.  I  hate  everything  which  detains  me  from 
it." 

A  letter  addressed  by  him  to  a  priest  named  Edmund 
tells  us  that  he  was  prepared  to  pass  the  winter  of  1500- 
1501  at  the  chateau  of  the  Lord  of  Courtembrune,  near 
St.  Omer.  Another  letter  w^as  sent  by  him  to  Dr. 
Adriaen,  subsequently  Pope  Adrian  VI,  whose  theologi- 
cal lectures  he  attended  at  Louvain.  It  was  on  the  rec- 
ommendation of  Dr.  Adriaen  that  the  authorities  of 
Louvain  offered  him  the  chair  of  Rhetoric;  but  he  de- 
clined this  offer,  like  so  many  others,  as  its  acceptance 
would  have  interfered  with  his  much  cherished  independ- 
ence of  thought  and  action. 

At  one  time  he  complains  that  want  of  money  prevents 
his  finishing  some  treatises,  at  another  he  says  that,  if 
he  had  money,  he  would  "purchase,  first  Greek  authors, 
and  then  clothes."    In  March,  1501,  he  writes: 

"I  have  by  a  lucky  chance  got  some  Greek  works, 
which  I  am  stealthily  transcribing  night  and  day." 

The  study  of  Greek  pressed  itself  more  and  more  on 
his  attention.  Teachers  of  that  language  were  to  be 
had,  but  not  without  extra  expense.  They  were  not 
good  instructors  either.    So  he  determined  to  teach  him- 


54 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


self!  In  July,  1501,  he  began  to  work  at  Euripides  and 
Isocrates. 

His  status  in  the  world  of  both  theology  and  scholar- 
ship was  daily  improving  during  the  summer  of  1501, 
which  he  spent  with  Antoine  de  Berghes,  Abbot  of  St 
Bertin  and  brother  of  the  Bishop  of  Cambrai  of  whom 
he  have  already  heard.  On  July  30  the  Abbot  sent  a 
letter  to  Cardinal  Giovanni  de'Medicis,  afterwards  Pope 
Leo  X,  to  seek  his  favours  for  the  Dutchman  whose 
greatness  was  to  be  the  common  boast  of  lettered  Eu- 
rope. He  desired  above  all  things  to  go  to  Rome,  but, 
quoting  Plautus,  he  admitted  that  sine  pennis  volare 
haud  facile  est. 

It  was  also  during  1 501  that,  while  residing  at  Tourn- 
ahens,  the  famous  Clerk  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam  wrote 
his  "Enchiridion  Militis  Christi,"  (or  "the  Dagger  of  the 
Knight  of  Christ,")  published  two  years  later  "Apud  divi 
Andomari''  or,  as  rendered  by  a  translator,  "at  the  town 
of  Saint  Andomers,  the  year  of  Christ's  birth  1501." 
He  therein  urged  that  "it  is  not  the  prayer  uttered  with 
the  lips,  but  the  ardent  one  of  the  heart,  which  reaches 
the  ears  of  God";  and  that  "Faith  is  the  only  gate  to 
Christ."  Indeed  his  main  object  was  still  to  inculcate 
the  practical  part  of  Christianity,  although  during  the 
same  year  he  produced  his  edition  of  Cicero's  "De  Offi- 
ciis."    That  no  copy  of  it  is  now  known  to  exist  will  not 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


55 


surprise  us,  if  we  attempt  to  form  an  idea  of  the  confu- 
sion and  tumult  of  the  time. 

In  1 501  he  was  again  at  the  convent  of  Steen,  at  Dor- 
drecht, Brussels,  Antwerp,  and  St.  Omer.  We  cannot 
over-estimate  this  short  period  in  his  career,  for  this  is 
the  date  on  the  triptych  by  our  Humanist  and  Painter. 
Traveling  constantly  about,  having  no  fixed  home,  his 
motto  seems  to  have  been:  ubi  bene,  ibi  patria.  He 
became  more  and  more  absorbed  in  a  close  study  of  an- 
cient literatures.  The  religious  habit  that  he  wore 
served  perpetually  to  remind  him  of  his  vows,  but  he 
appears  about  this  moment  to  have  begun  to  realize  that 
he  was  not  possessed  of  deep  religious  feelings,  nor  of 
any  great  interest  in  theology  as  studied  in  his  day.  He 
may  have  found  his  habit  an  encumbrance,  and  he  may 
have  barely  acquiesced  in  church  dogma  without  feeling 
obliged  to  investigate  it.  He  was  maturing  rapidly  and 
was  recognizing  that  his  temperament  was  that  of  the 
scholar  and  critic.  It  may  have  been  his  natural  love 
of  independence  and  quiet  leisure  which  induced  him  to 
resume  his  practice  of  the  art  of  painting  in  this  environ- 
ment. Such  a  view,  however  attractive,  is  purely  spec- 
ulative for,  as  some  one  has  well  said,  it  is  impossible 
to  "classify"  Erasmus.  He  had  almost  as  many  sides 
to  his  character,  without  approaching  him  in  genius,  as 
Leonardo  da  Vinci.  Nor  was  either  of  these  remark- 
able men  greatly  moved  by  theological  discussion. 


56  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


In  1505  he  again  visited  England,  but  he  seems  to 
have  been  at  times  despondent.  He  found  a  circle  of 
learned  friends  in  London  and  came  to  know  William 
Warham,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Richard  Foxe, 
Bishop  of  Winchester,  and  John  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Roch- 
ester, who  took  him  to  Cambridge  —  a  notable  event  in 
his  life.  He  would  naturally  see  something  of  Sir 
Thomas  More,  who  in  August  of  that  year  married  his 
first  wife,  but  that  would  not  be  in  his  "right  fair  house 
at  Chelsea,"  as  it  was  not  built  until  1520  and  More  did 
not  remove  there  from  Crosby  Place  until  1523.  They 
may  well  have  met  at  More  Hall,  Herts,  otherwise  Go- 
bions  or  Gubbins,  the  residence  of  Sir  John  More  and 
near  which,  at  North  Mimms,  Sir  Thomas  wrote  his 
"Utopia." 

In  1506  Erasmus  at  last  realized  the  ambition  of  his 
life,  to  visit  Italy;  and  there  he  remained  three  years 
bathing  his  soul  in  the  fountain  of  the  Renaissance.  He 
traveled  successively  to  Turin,  Bologna,  Florence,  Ven- 
ice, Padua,  Ferrara,  Siena,  Rome,  and  Naples.  Every- 
where he  feasted  his  eyes  on  rare  MS.  gathered  from 
the  East  and  West  in  consequence  of  the  fall  of  Con- 
stantinople in  1453.  The  prestige  of  the  universities  of 
Bologna  and  Padua  was  greater  than  that  of  Turin ;  in- 
deed, they  were  then  at  the  height  of  their  reputation.^* 

33  In  1876  the  Turinese  placed  a  superscription  on  their  Univer- 
sity to  record  that  Brasmo  di  Rotterdamo  was  laureato  nella  Uni- 
versita  di  Torino  4  Settembre  1506. 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


57 


In  Italy,  as  in  other  countries,  his  pleasure  may  have 
been  greatly  impaired  from  the  fact  that  he  always  re- 
fused to  learn  the  vernacular  languages.  His  time  was 
so  occupied  in  the  study  of  ancient  literatures  —  and  he 
was  now  but  thirty  years  of  age  —  that  he  probably 
felt  that  he  must  place  a  limit  to  his  study  of  languages 
commonly  spoken.  Being  at  the  very  centre  of  the 
Humanistic  efforts  of  his  time  —  and  certainly  the  fore- 
most man  of  his  age  in  that  respect  —  he  would  converse 
with  scholars  in  Latin.  Nor  must  we  forget  that  the 
Bible  was  known,  even  to  the  learned,  only  in  the  Latin 
version  and  was  otherwise  a  sealed  book  owing  to  its 
being  absolutely  forbidden  to  the  laity.  In  Bologna  lit- 
erary research  took  up  much  of  his  time.  He  was  there 
deeply  engaged  on  Greek  studies  with  Bombasio,  and  it 
was  about  the  same  time  —  but  certainly  during  his  stay 
at  Bologna  —  that  he  discontinued  wearing  his  monastic 
dress,  having  been  released  from  his  vows  by  Pope 
Julius  11. 

Leaving  Bologna,  where  Michelangelo  had  by  April, 
1506,  built  up  in  a  shed  near  San  Petronio  his  clay 
model  for  the  bronze  statue  of  Julius  II,  Erasmus 
reached  Florence.  Pico  della  Mirandola  (1463-1494), 
the  short-lived  Italian  Humanist  and  Philosopher,  had 
been  dead  some  years.  The  smoke  had  long  passed  away 
from  the  funeral  pyre  of  Savonarola  (1452-1498)  and 
his  fellow-martyrs.    Poliziano  (1454-1494),  who  in  his 


58 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


later  years  had  been  Professor  of  Rhetoric  and  Poetry  and 
had  devoted  his  muse  to  singing  the  arms  and  loves  of 
Giuliano  de'Medici  and  the  charms  of  la  bella  Simonetta, 
also  was  dead.  He  had  been  regarded  by  Erasmus  as  a 
master  in  translation.  Leonardo  was  in  Milan  and  still 
delaying  his  return  to  the  city  of  the  Arno,  much  against 
the  wishes  of  the  Signoria. 

It  might  have  been  assumed  that  the  singular,  aesthe- 
tic charm  of  Florence  would  have  been  quickly  exerted 
upon  Erasmus  who,  like  Pico  della  Mirandola,  had  by 
now  passed  beyond  the  study  of  the  ancient  classics  for 
their  own  sake.  For  in  a  soil  free  and  at  last  at  peace, 
in  the  midst  of  the  armed  camps  of  Italy,  the  great  art- 
ists from  various  provinces  were  united  in  work  to  in- 
struct each  other  and  carry  forward  the  torch  of  en- 
lightenment.^* We  might  almost  have  expected  that  this 
was  the  very  atmosphere  in  which  the  Humanist  and 
Painter  would  have  sought,  although  a  foreigner,  to 
play  his  part  on  canvas.  But  the  great  Hollander  moved 
through  all  these  things  with  the  merely  superficial  in- 
terest of  the  traveler.  He  was  in  reality  by  now  con- 
cerned with  other  studies.    For  he  writes: 

"I  added  some  Dialogues  of  Lucian  during  the  few 
days  we  took  refuge  in  Florence  for  fear  of  the  siege." 

^*  Rev.  W.  Hudson  Shaw  makes  the  extraordinary  and  unten- 
able claim  that  this  "base-born  son  of  a  youth  met  with  disap- 
pointment in  Italy,  as  the  Golden  Age  of  the  Renaissance  was 
over !"    See  his  ''Lectures  on  the  Oxford  Reformers,"  1893,  p.  36. 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter  59 


Art  in  the  city  of  the  Medicis  attracted  but  little  the 
spirit  of  the  Great  Humanist — for  Painter  he  had  ceased 
to  be^ — and  he  was  anxious  to  press  on  to  Venice. 
Thence  he  passed  to  Padua.  Perhaps  he  mistakenly  con- 
sidered that,  so  far  as  the  fine  arts  were  concerned,  Italy 
was  yet  only  passing  through  a  formative  stage.  For  we 
do  not  forget  that,  a  few  years  before  the  birth  of  Eras- 
mus, the  art  of  the  Van  Eycks  and  post-Eyckian  paint- 
ers had  been  technically  far  superior  to  that  of  Italy. 
But  those  days  were  in  fact  by  now  passed. 

Success  had  not  even  yet  come  to  him,  but  he  perse- 
vered whole-heartedly  to  realize  the  aim  he  had  had 
before  him  as  far  back  as  the  time  when  he  wrote  the 
importunate  letter  to  Battus.  It  was  the  classics  that 
were  to  absorb  his  attention.  While  he  carried  forward 
the  reformation  of  religion,  he  was  more  taken  up  with 
the  reformation  of  learning.  Much  as  he  might  hope  to 
unite  the  culture  of  Italy  with  some  genuine  traits  of 
northern  piety,  he  disliked  the  restrictions  of  theologians 
or,  indeed,  any  restraint  exerted  from  without.  To  his 
eminently  sound  mind  it  was  clear  that  all  knowledge 
really  useful  to  man  was  bound  up  in  the  literature  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  but  not  in  each  in  the  same  degree. 
Was  not  antiquity,  or  rather  the  classical  spirit  as  un- 
derstood in  his  day,  at  last  issuing  from  the  tomb,  and 
were  not  the  dead  languages  about  to  live  again? 

Michelangelo  had  again  arrived  in  Rome  in  the  spring 


6o  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


of  1508,  and  was  now  engaged  in  his  laborious  and  al- 
most thankless  task  of  decorating  the  vault  of  the  Sis- 
tine  Chapel.  Raphael  in  the  summer  of  the  same  year 
had  completed  his  Florentine  period  and  was  at  work  in 
Rome,  while  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  never  greatly  attracted 
by  the  Eternal  city,  was  at  Milan  on  the  occasion  of  the 
entry  of  Louis  XII  in  July  of  1509. 

It  was  in  such  circumstances  that  Erasmus  arrived  in 
Rome  in  the  spring  of  1509.  The  libraries  of  Rome 
were  thrown  open  wide  before  him.  Everywhere  he 
met  with  kindness.  In  the  College  of  Cardinals  there 
w^as  the  freedom  and  grace  of  intellectual  pursuit  exactly 
suited  to  him.  And  he  was  rather  exacting.  He  became 
acquainted  with  the  most  eminent  scholars  in  Rome  as 
he  had  already  done  in  England,  and  he  was  held  in 
equally  high  regard.  He  was  known  to  Giovanni  de 
Medici,  soon  to  become  Pope  Leo  X  as  predecessor  of 
Adrian  VI  whom  he  had  known  many  years  ago.  He 
was  well  acquainted  with  Tommaso  Inghirami,  libra- 
rian of  the  Vatican,  and  apparently  with  Bembo.  In 
later  years  he  certainly  wrote  to  Bembo  several  letters, 
notably  in  1528,  1532,  and  1534.  As  we  pass  in  rapid 
review  the  few  short  months  he  spent  in  Rome,  the  fas- 
cination of  the  man  grows  on  us.  We  quite  understand 
that,  after  having  been  often  invited  by  Cardinal  Do- 
menico  Grimani  to  call  on  him,  he  eventually  went  plutot 
par  convenance  que  par  plaisir  —  as  he  tells  us  himself. 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter  6i 


Naturally  he  carried  away  the  pleasantest  remembrances 
of  that  interview.  Yet  he  had  not  the  courage,  or  the 
leisure,  to  repeat  that  call  —  ''de  crainte  de  me  laisser 
seduire/'  to  put  his  own  words  into  French.  He  event- 
ually admitted  that  *'en  verite,  je  n'ai  jamais  ete  aussi 
mal  inspire,'' 

Other  cardinals  beside  Grimani  recognized  the  worth 
of  Erasmus,  realized  the  value  of  him  to  Rome,  and 
made  no  secret  of  their  opinions.  He  had  merely  to 
allow  himself  to  be  persuaded  to  remain  on,  and  advance- 
ment would  have  been  rapid.  But  now,  as  at  Louvain 
years  before,  his  love  of  independence  and  scholastic 
leisure  directed  his  course.  So  that,  when  Henry  VHI 
ascended  the  throne,  Erasmus  readily  accepted  the  sum- 
mons to  England  to  become  the  accredited  representative 
of  the  new  learning.  Did  it  not  appear  that  the  culture 
of  Italy,  the  wealth  of  Spain,  the  peaceful  arts  of  trade 
and  exploration  were  all  bound  up,  as  one  writer  claims, 
in  the  accession  of  this  young  king?  Consequently,  in 
spite  of  earnest  entreaties  this  intellectual  giant  left 
Rome  in  July,  1509,  for  Louvain  and  Antwerp,  and  so 
embarked  once  more  for  England. 

Before  very  long  he  realized  that  he  had  been  precipi- 
tate and  ill-advised.  He  did  not  find  in  the  merry  king 
the  beneficent  patron  he  had  pictured  to  himself.  He 
looked  back  wistfully  on  the  libraries  of  Rome ;  he  might 
have  enjoyed  so  much  there,  if  he  had  but  been  willing  to 


62 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


become  "a  red-hatted  lackey  of  the  Holy  See/'  He  soon 
developed  a  home-sickness  for  the  eternal  city  —  desider- 
ium  Romae,  and  Alma  Urbs  are  his  own  expressions. 
As  the  French  translator  makes  him  say: 

'Tai  quitte  Vltalie  malgre  moi  et  d  regret.  .  .  // 
n'  y  a  aucun  peuple  qui  me  plaise  autant  que  les  Italiens." 

And  again : 

''Mon  dme  est  a  Rome,  et  nulle  part  r aimer ais  mieux 
laisser  mes  osJ' 

In  England  he  amassed  materials  for  his  '^Colloquies" 
which  set  forth  a  good  picture  of  contemporary  Eng- 
land: 

"The  genius  of  the  British  nation  is  more  distinguish- 
ed for  solidity  of  judgment,  cool  reflection  and  deliber- 
ate reasonings  than  for  laconisms,  flashes  of  wit  or  flights 
of  fancy/' 

Now  it  was  that  he  became  so  friendly  with  Thomas 
More,  so  soon  to  be  knighted.  Taken  into  favour  by 
Warham,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  whom  he  had  met 
on  a  previous  visit,  he  was  presented  to  the  living  of 
Aldington  in  Kent.  Whether  Cardinal  Wolsey  viewed 
him  with  a  jealous  eye  we  cannot  say,  but  Erasmus  cer- 
tainly would  not  be  guilty  of  servile  adulation  of  either 
Wolsey  or  his  royal  master.  Wolsey  actually  promised 
him  a  canonry  of  Tournai,  of  which  see  he  was  Bishop. 
Although  Erasmus  wrote  disparagingly  of  himself,  he 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


63 


admitted  that  his  good  fortune  in  England  had  been 
greater  than  he  deserved.  But  it  had  not  been  "alto- 
gether such  as  he  had  expected,  or  as  his  friends  had 
promised  him/'  Possibly  those  promises  had  been  in 
great  part  created  in  his  own  imagination. 

Exactly  what  happened  we  cannot  say.  But  in  July, 
1 5 14,  he  left  England  for  Flanders.  His  former  patron, 
Lord  Mountjoy,  had  been  made  governor  of  the  castle 
of  Hammes  in  the  Pale  of  Calais  in  Picardy.  The  letter 
which  Erasmus  wrote  from  Hammes  in  that  month  is 
significant  of  his  relations  with  Father  Servatius,  the 
prior  of  the  convent  which  Erasmus  had  left  many  years 
previously  with,  we  must  admit,  such  great  benefit  to  the 
world  and  himself.  The  following  is  the  letter,  which 
was  not  included  in  the  collection  of  his  letters  published 
during  his  life-time : 

"Your  letter,  after  following  me  about  England,  has 
just  reached  my  hands.  I  have  nothing  to  reproach  my- 
self with.  What  should  I  gain  by  rejoining  you  ?  Your 
way  of  living  does  not  edify  me.  My  health  is  still  weak. 
I  should  be  useless  to  you,  and  to  myself  it  would  be 
death.  Too  well  I  know  your  climate  and  the  character 
of  your  food,  to  say  nothing  of  your  manners.  I  should 
die  of  it,  I  know.  As  to  my  writings,  good  judges  say 
that  I  write  better  than  any  other  man  living.  Were  I 
with  you,  I  could  do  nothing  at  all.    I  left  you  a  vigor- 


64 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


ous  youth.  I  am  now  a  grey-headed  invalid.  I  have 
never  served  king  or  prelate.  I  propose  now  to  go  to 
Basel  to  print  some  books.'' 

This  was  probably  the  correct  line  for  him  to  take,  as 
the  monks  were  formidable.  He,  therefore,  had  the  wis- 
dom to  address  a  letter  to  the  Prothonotary  of  the  Apos- 
tolic See,  a  letter  that  was  to  be  read  in  conclave  to  Pope 
Leo  X,  and  the  cardinals.  Fortunately  the  reply  was 
most  favourable.  He  had  been  released  from  his  monas- 
tic vows  by  Julius,  and  he  was  now  free  from  hindrances. 

In  September,  15 14,  he  arrived  at  Basel,  and  translat- 
ed Lucian's  "SaturnaHa''  for  Warham.  During  that 
year  Dopius,  the  Louvain  professor,  remonstrated  with 
Erasmus  on  his  "Praise  of  Folly"  and  his  "New  Testa- 
ment.'' Having  once  more  left  Basel  for  England  he 
wrote,  early  in  the  next  year,  to  Cardinal  Grimani,  in 
Rome,  that  "Froben's  huge  workshop  is  kept  aglow  while 
'Jerome'  is  being  reproduced  in  a  most  elegant  text." 

On  April  29,  1515,  he  wrote  from  London  to  Leo  X, 
asking  to  be  allowed  to  dedicate  to  him  his  "Jerome" : 

"It  will  be  truly  fitting  that  the  First  Doctor  of  the 
Christian  religion  should  be  dedicated  to  its  highest  pre- 
late, and  the  best  of  all  theologians  recommended  by  the 
title  of  the  best  of  all  the  Popes." 

Leo  replied  most  favourably,  accepting  the  dedication, 
and  the  "Jerome"  duly  appeared  during  the  following 
spring. 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter  65 

Erasmus  was  ever  anxious  to  render  a  service,  and  in 
1 5 1 5  he  wrote  to  the  Cardinal  of  St.  George  and  Cardinal 
Grimani,  urging  them  to  use  their  utmost  influence  on 
behalf  of  John  Reuchlin.  Reuchlin  had  been  among  the 
first  to  introduce  the  study  of  Hebrew  and  Greek  into 
Germany.  The  jealousy  of  Hebrew  among  the  clergy 
and  the  orthodox  German  church  began  to  demand  that 
all  Hebrew  books  except  the  Bible  should  be  burnt. 

Three  years  later,  Erasmus  writing  to  Cardinal  Wol- 
sey,  recommended  Reuchlin,  adding: 

"I  never  conversed  with  him  except  once  at  Frank- 
fort. We  are  only  on  those  terms  which  usually  subsist 
between  men  of  letters." 

During  15 15,  by  the  interest  of  the  Chancellor  Syl- 
vagius,  Erasmus  was  made  counsellor  to  Charles  of 
Austria,  afterwards  the  Emperor  Charles  V,  with  400 
gulden  a  year.  Partly  for  that  reason  and  partly  be- 
cause he  longed  to  be  back  near  Froben's  beloved  press, 
he  took  up  his  residence  at  Basel.  Yet  before  long  he 
went  to  Antwerp  and  again  visited  England,  his  last 
ten  days  —  ah!  rare  ten  days!  —  there  being  spent  with 
his  friend  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester.  From  the  palace 
at  Rochester  on  August  31,  15 16,  he  wrote  to  Bullock, 
stating  that  university  studies  at  Cambridge  had  con- 
sisted until  thirty  years  previously  in  nothing  but  "Alex- 
ander'' (the  grammar  text-book  at  Cambridge),  the 
"Little  Logicals,"  the  old  exercises  from  Aristotle,  and 


66 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


the  "Qusestiones''  from  Duns  Scotus.  The  study  of 
mathematics,  the  new  Aristotle,  and  a  knowledge  of 
Greek  had  all  come  in  within  the  previous  few  years. 
The  "three  colleges''  of  Erasmus,  which  represented  for 
him  the  university,  were  Queen's,  Christ's,  and  St 
John's.  The  rooms  occupied  by  Erasmus,  overhanging 
the  college  kitchen,  are  in  a  small  court  on  the  south  of 
the  Cloister  Court.  There  Erasmus  had  lived  four 
years. 

In  1 5 17  he  again  paid  a  brief  visit  to  England,  and 
in  the  early  part  of  that  year  he  received  a  flattering 
offer  from  the  king  of  France  to  induce  him  to  reside 
in  that  kingdom.  By  this  year  his  fame  was  so  wide- 
spread that  his  portrait  was  painted  by  Quentin  Matsys.^® 

During  the  summer  of  15 18  he  was  ill  with  a  cough 
and  with  dysentery  at  Basel.  Yet  his  industry  never 
abated.  He  was  anxious  to  pay  one  more  visit  to  Eng- 
land, but  went  on  searching  libraries,  consulting  with 
politicians,  corresponding  with  many  persons,  adding 
and  correcting,  his  works  passing  through  repeated  edi- 
tions. Now  was  first  published  the  ''Colloquies"  which 
he  had  been  composing  during  his  leisure  in  the  fifteen 
years  preceding.  In  the  autumn  he  returned  to  Lou- 
vain,  but  was  in  a  bad  state  of  health  on  arriving  there. 
He  recounted  at  length  to  Beatus  Rhenanus  the  incidents 

«5 Tucker:  ''Cambridge;'  1907,  p.  170. 
See  page  81  infra. 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


67 


of  his  journey  there.  He  had  already  written  at  St. 
Omer  an  exposition  of  the  First  Psalm  (''Beatus  Vir 
Qui''),  which  he  had  very  appropriately  dedicated  to 
Beatus  Rhenanus.  The  wide  extent  of  his  reading  and 
his  detailed  research-work  were  extraordinary,  while  his 
correspondence  was  enormous  as  well  as  lengthy. 

On  May  22,  15 19,  he  wrote  to  Melanchthon  that  "ev- 
erybody finds  Luther's  life  blameless.''  A  few  days 
later  a  letter  from  him  to  Luther  begins  with  the  words : 
"My  dearest  Brother  in  Christ."  Yet  Luther  described 
Erasmus  as  an  Epicurean  and  a  Lucian !  While  still  at 
Louvain,  he  watched  the  gathering  of  the  storm,  and 
wrote  to  Gerard  of  Nimegen : 

"I  fear  what  may  happen  to  that  wretch  Luther.  He 
has  displeased  the  princes  and  has  infuriated  the  Pope. 
Why  could  he  not  be  advised  by  me  and  keep  that  tongue 
of  his  quiet  a  Httle." 

All  this  was  to  end  in  the  Papal  Bull  of  Excommuni- 
cation against  him  on  June  15,  1520.  A  month  later  he 
was  to  meet  Albrecht  Diirer  during  his  tour  in  the  Neth- 
erlands.^^ But  Louvain  as  a  residence  had  become  in- 
tolerable, as  "the  divinity  and  the  climate  alike  disagreed 
with  him."  At  this  moment  Leo  X  died,  and  Erasmus's 
old  school-fellow  Cardinal  Adrian  became  the  church's 
sovereign.  So  Erasmus  left  Louvain  to  live  at  Basel 
with  his  publisher  Froben. 

See  page  81  infra. 


68 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


A  few  months  later  he  published  at  Cambridge  his 
"De  Conscribendis  Epistolis,"  one  of  the  five  earliest 
books  to  be  printed  there,  in  1521.^®  In  the  following 
year  he  dedicated  to  Jerome  Erasmus  Froben  an  edition 
of  his  "Colloquies"  which  in  1526  was  to  be  censured, 
and  its  reading  prohibited.  In  1523  he  was  to  meet 
Hans  Holbein  the  Younger,  who  was  to  paint  his  por- 
trait.^® He  tells  Cardinal  Campeggio  in  1523  that  he 
is  living  "  in  a  house  of  his  own  provided  with  an  open 
fire-place,  on  account  of  his  well-known  horror  of  Ger- 
man stoves."  One  of  his  letters  reveals  the  decoration 
of  his  bedroom  with  two  casts  of  Wilibald  Pirkheimer 
and  a  picture  of  that  friend  by  Diirer.  He  corresponded 
with  Pirkheimer  for  years.  When  the  ecclesiastical 
revolution  broke  out  at  Basel,  under  his  own  eyes,  he 
wrote  of  the  iconoclasm  of  the  Reformers  to  Pirkheim- 
er in  the  following  terms : 

"Not  a  statue  was  left  in  the  church,  niche  or  mon- 
astery. The  paintings  on  the  walls  were  white-washed 
Everything  combustible  was  burnt.  What  would  not 
burn  was  broken  to  pieces.  Nothing  was  spared,  how- 
ever precious  or  beautiful." 

By  now  advancing  years  and  increasing  bad  health 
had  diminished  his  wandering  propensities  to  a  great 

Bowes :  ''Catalogue  of  Books  printed  at  Cambridge,  1321- 
1893;'  p.  505. 

^®  See  page  82  infra. 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter  69 

extent,  but  he  found  it  advisable  to  leave  Basel.  Ob- 
taining a  safe-conduct,  and  an  invitation  from  the  Arch- 
duke Ferdinand,  he  despatched  "two  waggon-loads  of 
books  and  furniture"  to  Freiburg,  within  the  Austrian 
frontier,  and  moved  there  himself.  His  new  establish- 
ment proved  a  costly  one,  and  his  only  settled  income  at 
this  time  may  have  been  from  Warham  and  Mountjoy. 
There  was  confusion  in  Germany  and  the  finances  of  the 
Emperor  Charles  were  in  a  straitened  state.  He  might 
even  have  been  in  difficulties,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
generosity  of  the  Augsburg  banking  family  of  Fugger. 
At  one  time  he  writes  that  his  pension,  due  from  the 
Emperor  Charles  V,  continued  to  be  unpaid.  "If  it  is 
ever  paid  now,  it  will  come  too  late,''  he  writes,  "unless 
indeed  there  is  any  use  for  money  in  the  Elysian  fields.'* 
{Nisi  forte  in  campis  Elysiis  opus  erit  pecunia). 

By  now  had  passed  away  his  friend  Aldus  Manutius 
(1450-1515)  who  between  1494  and  15 15  had  published 
twenty-seven  editiones  principes  of  Greek  authors  and 
of  Greek  works  of  reference;  nor  was  his  enthusiasm  for 
Greek  literature  limited  to  the  printing  room.  Thomas 
Linacre,  the  English  Humanist,  who  had  been  one  of 
the  first  to  teach  Greek  at  Oxford,  had  died  in  1524. 
His  fellow-countryman  Longolius,  also  in  the  same  year, 
had  ended  his  days  at  Padua.  Gone  also  was  Martin 
Dopius  of  Louvain.    Erasmus's  grief  was  great  at  the 


yo  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


loss  of  his  old  friend  Joannes  Froben  in  1527,  and  he 
claimed  that  in  consequence  thereof  "all  the  apostles  of 
science  ought  to  wear  mourning."  In  1529  passed 
away  also  Baldassare  Castiglione  whose  '7/  Cortegiano'* 
had  been  published  the  previous  year  from  the  press 
of  Aldus. 

By  February  7,  1527,  must  have  been  finished  by  Hans 
Holbein  the  Younger  the  sketch,  now  at  Basel,  for  the 
"More  Family  group.''  In  this  connection  it  is  not  sur- 
prising to  find  Erasmus  writing  on  September  6,  1529, 
to  More: 

"Oh!  that  it  were  once  more  granted  me  in  life  to 
see  such  dear  friends  face  to  face  whom  I  contemplate 
with  the  utmost  joy  imaginable  in  the  picture  which 
Holbein  has  brought  me." 

This  "picture"  is,  of  course,  the  drawing  at  Basel, 
the  parent  work  from  which  in  time  was  derived  the 
very  large  painting  on  canvas  (loi  ins.  by  141  ins.)  in 
the  collection  of  Lord  St.  Oswald  at  Nostell.'*^ 

On  September  7  was  written  by  Erasmus  to  Mar- 
garet Roper,  More's  eldest  and  favorite  daughter,  the 
delightful  letter  : 

"I  can  scarcely  express  in  words,  Margaret  Roper, 
thou  ornament  of  thine  England  {''Decus  Britanniae'') 
what  hearty  delight  I  experienced  when  the  painter  Hol- 

See  pp.  80-98  of  that  catalogue  compiled  by  the  present  writ- 
er in  1915. 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


71 


bein  presented  to  my  view  your  whole  family  in  such  a 
successful  delineation  that  I  could  scarcely  have  seen  you 
better,  had  I  been  myself  near  you.  Constantly  do  I  de- 
sire that  once  more,  before  my  goal  is  reached,  it  may  be 
granted  me  to  see  this  dear  family  circle,  to  whom  I  owe 
the  best  part  of  my  outward  prosperity,  and  of  my  fame, 
whatever  they  may  be,  and  would  owe  them  rather  than 
to  any  other  mortal.  A  fair  portion  of  this  wish  has  now 
been  fulfilled  by  the  gifted  hand  of  the  painter." 

How  delightful  and  true  to  life  must  be  the  description 
which  Erasmus  gives  us  in  his  letter  to  Von  Hutten  of 
Sir  Thomas  More : 

"He  is  of  middle  height,  well-shaped,  complexion  pale, 
without  a  trace  of  colour  in  it  save  when  the  skin  flushes 
.  .  .  eyes  grey  with  dark  spots  —  an  eye  supposed 
in  England  to  indicate  genius,  and  to  be  never  found 
except  in  remarkable  men.  The  expression  is  pleasant 
and  cordial,  easily  passing  into  a  smile,  for  he  has  the 
quickest  sense  of  the  ridiculous  of  any  man  I  ever 
met.  .  .  He  is  wise  with  the  wise,  and  jests  with 
fools  —  with  women  especially,  and  his  wife  among 
them.  .  .  The  wife  that  he  chose  was  a  very  young 
lady,  well  connected  but  wholly  uneducated,  who  had 
been  brought  up  in  the  country  with  her  parents.  Thus 
was  he  able  to  shape  her  character  after  his  own  pat- 
tern. He  taught  her  books,  he  taught  her  music,  and 
formed  her  into  a  companion  for  his  life.  Unhappily 


72  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


she  was  taken  from  him  by  death  before  her  time.  She 
bore  him  several  children.  .  .  A  few  months  after 
he  had  buried  her  he  married  a  widow  to  take  care  of 
them.  This  lady,  he  often  said  humorously,  was  nec 
bella  nec  puella;  but  she  was  a  good  manager,  and  he 
lives  as  pleasantly  with  her  as  if  she  had  been  the  love- 
liest of  maidens.  He  rules  her  with  jokes  and  caresses 
better  than  most  husbands  do  with  sternness  and  author- 
ity, and  though  she  has  a  sharp  tongue,  and  is  a  thrifty 
house-keeper  he  has  made  her  learn  harp,  cithern,  and 
guitar,  and  practise  before  him  every  day. 

"He  controls  his  family  with  the  same  easy  hand ;  no 
tragedies,  no  quarrels.  If  a  dispute  begins  it  is  prompt- 
ly settled.  He  has  never  made  an  enemy  or  become  an 
enemy.  His  whole  house  breathes  happiness,  and  no 
one  enters  it  who  is  not  the  better  for  the  visit." 

In  1529  was  addressed  to  William,  Duke  of  Cleves,  a 
treatise  ''the  argument  of  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam''  en- 
titled *'De  Pueris  statim  ac  Liberaliter  Instituendis  Lib- 
ellus."  It  is  of  special  interest  for  our  study  of  the 
great  Dutchman  as  both  Humanist  and  Painter,  as  he 
in  it  deals  exhaustively  with  the  Beginnings  of  Syste- 
matic Instruction,  and  dwells  on  the  Importance  of 
Teaching  Art  to  Children.  ''Well-born  is  something, 
but  instruction  is  more,"  he  says  in  one  place.  He  writes : 

"Drawing  is  attractive  to  boys,  in  that  every  child  is 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


delighted  to  express  in  this  way  what  he  has  seen :  at  a 
later  stage  it  will  be  found  helpful  to  add  manual  dex- 
terity in  painting,  modelling  and  architecture:  we  need 
not  fear  the  reproach  of  the  rigid  humourist,  for  we  can- 
not forget  that  Our  Lord  was  not  only  the  son  of  a  crafts- 
man, but  was  one  himself/' 

In  his  "De  Ratione  Studii"  or  the  "Right  Method  of 
Instruction,"  of  151 1,  he  had  urged  the  importance  of 
Mathematics  and  Nature  Study,  and  he  is  fully  alive  to 
the  importance  of  "information"  as  part  of  the  equip- 
ment of  life.  He  contends  that  "Pictures,  charts,  maps, 
even  real  objects,  as  in  Gardens,  are  of  great  help  in 
lessons."*^  We  have  an  illustration  in  the  picture  of 
the  fight  between  the  elephant  and  the  dragojin,  "the 
large  Indian  variety  described  in  De  Pueris."  Again, 
in  discoursing  on  "The  Pleasurable  methods  which  must 
be  devised  in  the  First  Stages  of  Teaching,"  he  claims 
that  it  will  be  an  advantage  if  "to  good  narrative  power 
the  teacher  or  parent  can  add  the  help  of  pictorial  illus- 
tration. .  .  A  picture  is  shown,  containing  an  ele- 
phant, in  combat  with  a  dragoon.  At  once  the  class 
shows  curiosity."  Erasmus  also  uses  the  words,*^  ''pic- 
tura"  and  ''pingo''  in  the  "Colloquies." 

Pirkheimer  had  died,  and  in  1532  Warham,  Chan- 

*^W.  H.  Woodward:  "Erasmus;'  1904,  p.  139. 
*2  Woodward,  p.  143. 


74 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


cellor  of  the  University  of  Oxford  and  Archbishop,  was 
buried  in  Canterbury  Cathedral.  On  the  death  of  Clem- 
ent VII  two  years  later,  and  the  succession  of  Paul  III, 
Erasmus  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  of  the  eleva- 
tion of  his  friends  Bembo  and  Sadoleti,  the  apostolic 
secretaries  of  Leo  X,  to  the  Sacred  College  of  Cardinals. 
He  had  mentioned  them  in  complimentary  terms  in  his 
"Ciceronianus''  in  1528. 

The  autumn  of  1535,  when  Mountjoy  died,  saw  the  re- 
turn to  Basel  of  this  intellectual  giant  whose  strength 
may  almost  be  said  to  have  surpassed  nature's  law.  He 
made  his  will  on  February  12  of  the  following  year. 
It  was  sealed  with  his  ring  given  to  him  in  1509.  The 
seal,  with  the  head  of  the  God  Terminus  —  a  youth's 
head  with  long  hair  —  was  inscribed  with  his  own  motto 
''Concedo  NuUi.''*^  There  is  no  mention  in  the  will 
of  any  pictures  or  other  works  of  art.  This  is  perhaps 
remarkable  in  a  man  who  had  himself  painted  on  panel, 
at  least  up  to  the  age  of  twenty-five,  and  had  several 
times  been  portrayed  —  as  we  shall  see  (page  82)  — 
by  two  of  the  best  contemporary  painters  of  central  Eu- 
rope." 

The  end  of  a  strenuous  Hfe  came  on  July  12,  1536;  he 

*^  As  he  elsewhere  explained,  the  motto  was  intended  to  assert 
not  his  own  individual  superiority,  but  that  in  Terminus  we  meet 
Death  the  great  enemy  whom  none  can  resist. 

Neither  Diirer  nor  Holbein  was  indisputably  of  German 
descent  and  birth.    These  facts  are  too  little  known. 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


75 


passed  away  without  priestly  assistance,  calling  only  on 
the  mercy  of  Christ.  He  died  worth  7,000  ducats,  and 
his  will  was  confirmed  by  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope. 

Thus  came  the  end  of  "the  greatest  luminary  of  his 
age,  the  greatest  scholar  of  any  age,  mourned  by  all  lov- 
ers of  wit  and  learning,  honoured  and  esteemed  by  every 
sovereign  in  Europe  and  by  the  head  of  this  church; 
hated  and  feared  only  by  the  ignorant  who  were  wholly 
incapable  of  appreciating  his  worth.''  He  died,  believ- 
ing that  his  labours  had  been  in  vain.  But  the  most 
facetious  man  and  the  greatest  critic  of  his  age  had  been 
building  more  surely  than  he  suspected. 

Perhaps  no  scholar  the  world  has  ever  known  is  so 
certain  of  immortality  as  Erasmus.  There  was  no 
flavour  of  nationality  in  his  genius :  his  greatness  is  the 
common  boast  of  lettered  Europe.  His  opinions  and  the 
fruits  of  his  research  spread  like  wildfire  throughout  Eu- 
rope. Some  of  his  works  were  translated  into  Italian, 
French,  Spanish,  German,  and  English.  The  printers 
could  hardly  keep  pace  with  the  demand.  The  "Prince 
of  Folly"  and  the  "Colloquies"  were  to  be  found  in  every 
palace,  every  school,  every  monastery.  One  bookseller 
in  Paris,  on  announcing  that  the  "Colloquies"  was  pro- 
hibited, sold  more  than  24,000  copies  of  one  impression. 
It  was  not  only  his  admirers  and  his  critics  who  bought 
so  widely.  For  his  enemies  acquired  copies  to  discover 
his  errors.    Their  animosity  may  be  assessed  by  their 


76  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


ingenious  perversions  in  the  spelling  of  his  name.  As 
one  critic  has  pointed  out,  for  them  Errasmus  stood  for 
his  errors,  Erasmus  suggested  that  he  ploughed  up  old 
truths  and  revered  traditions,  Erasmus  held  him  up  to 
ridicule  as  an  ass  by  his  writings.  It  is  even  established 
that  he  was  dubbed  Behemoth  and  Anti-Christ. 

Although  in  the  main  well  disposed  towards  the  Refor- 
mation, he  was  sceptical  of  ecclesiastical  authority.  Yet 
in  the  religion  of  Christ  he  was  loyal,  enthusiastic,  and 
devout.  He  did  not  actually  flout  theology,  but  never 
evinced  any  deep  interest  in  it.  It  has  even  been  con- 
tended that  there  was  a  tincture  of  rationalism  about  his 
theology.  A  profound  scholar,  a  voluminous  writer,  a 
thinker  with  a  wide  outlook:  he  was  in  the  eyes  of  his 
critics  an  indelible  blur  on  the  picture  of  a  religious  re- 
vival. But  to  him  Humanism  could  not  be  unchristian 
because  Christ  was  the  perfect  man;  nor  to  him  could 
theology  be  really  narrow,  as  it  was  "the  science  of  the 
things  of  God.'' 

The  fascination  of  the  great  scholar  increases  as  the 
years  rush  by.  It  has  been  claimed  that  Plato  "wrote 
with  a  diamond  upon  marble.''  But  have  not  the  words 
of  the  great  Dutchman  annihilated  centuries  of  intellec- 
tual darkness  ?  He,  doubtless,  would  have  agreed  with 
Guarino  that  "without  knowledge  of  Greek,  Latin  schol- 
arship itself  is,  in  any  real  sense,  impossible." 

We  do  not,  of  course,  overlook  the  claims  of  Petrarch 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


77 


( 1304-1374),  the  first  modern  man  and  a  father  of  Eras- 
mus. Petrarch  took  minor  orders  and  traveled  exten- 
sively. Although  his  Latin  had  not  the  polish  of  Eras- 
mus, he  formulated  the  aesthetics  of  his  age,  and  his 
zeal  for  the  accumulation  of  learning  exerted  a  powerful 
influence  on  the  Renaissance.  It  has  been  urged  that 
perhaps  only  two  other  literary  men  were  ever  as  pop- 
ular as  Petrarch  —  Erasmus  and  Voltaire. 
Quelle  vie,  Mon  Dieu,  que  celle-la\ 


V 

PORTRAITS  OF  ERASMUS 


V 

PORTRAITS  OF  ERASMUS 


If  Erasmus  as  Humanist  and  as  Painter  has  hitherto 
occupied  our  attention,  our  interest  may  none  the  less 
be  directed  to  the  portraits  of  him  which  fortunately 
preserve  to  us  his  appearance  in  life.  So  far  as  we 
know,  none  is  earlier  than  that  painted  in  15 17  by  Quen- 
tin  Matsys  who,  on  the  companion  panel,  rendered  the 
features  of  Petrus  Aegidius.  Indeed,  Erasmus  himself 
writes : 

"Petrus  Aegidius  et  ego  pingimur  eadem  tabula ;  eam 
tibi  dono  brevi  mittemus." 

This  "Aegidius''  by  Matsys  is  now  in  the  collection  of 
lyOrd  Radnor  at  Lf ngford.  o 

Having  visited  Venice  in  1494- 1495,  again  in 
1 505-1 507,  Albrecht  Diirer  in  July,  1520,  made  his  mem- 
orable journey  to  the  Netherlands  and  remained  there 
exactly  a  year.  We  know  much  of  his  movements  there 
from  the  diary  he  kept,  and  we  know  that  he  met  Eras- 
mus. He  writes:  "I  have  taken  Erasmus  of  Rotter- 
dam's portrait  once  more;"  and  "Oh!  Erasmus  of  Rot- 
terdam, where  wilt  thou  stay?  Dost  thou  see  how  the 
unjust  tyranny  of  worldly  power  and  the  might  of  dark- 


82 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


ness  prevail/'  Probably  he  drew  him  twice  in  1521, 
and  engraved  his  head  from  memory  in  1526.  But  no 
portrait  in  oil  by  him  is  known  today. 

In  1 523  the  Dutch  scholar  was  to  meet  Hans  Holbein 
the  Younger,  who  had  a  greater  sympathy  than  the 
Nuremberg  painter,  and  was  a  finer  type  of  humanist. 
It  is  due  to  the  veracity  of  Holbein's  art  that  we  can 
judge  of  the  illustrious  Dutchman's  appearance  in  life. 
Holbein  is  in  fact  the  peculiar  immortalizer  of  Eras- 
mus. The  two  portraits  that  he  painted  in  1523  came 
to  England.  In  a  letter  to  Wilibald  Pirkheimer  on 
June  3,  1524,  Erasmus  says:  *'Only  recently  I  have 
sent  two  portraits  of  me  to  England  painted  by  a  not 
unskillful  artist.  He  has  also  taken  a  portrait  of  me 
to  France."  One  of  these  was  sent  as  a  present  from 
Erasmus  to  Warham,  as  we  know  from  the  letter  of 
September  4,  1524,  to  the  Archbishop.  Today  one  of 
these,  the  smaller  panel,  hangs  in  the  long  gallery  of  the 
Louvre,  (Plate  VI)  having  passed  at  one  time  into  the 
collection  of  Charles  I  who  parted  with  it  by  exchange. 
The  original  study  of  the  Louvre  portrait,  in  oil  on  pa- 
per, is  at  Basel.  The  other  portrait  of  1523  is  in  the 
collection  of  Lord  Radnor  at  Longford,  near  Salisbury. 
Perhaps  no  inscription  on  a  picture  was  ever  more  ap- 
propriate and  striking  than  that  on  the  latter.  It  reads : 
'^Hrakaeioi  Ponoi  Erasmi  Rotero.    .    "    The  la- 


82 


Eras:.:      Humanist  and  Painter 


ness  prevai  >bably  he  drew  him  twice  in  1521, 

and  ead  from  memory  in  1526.    But  no 

iiim  is  known  today. 
J  liie  Dutch  scholar  was  to  meet  Hans  Holbein 
,.iit   lounger,  who  had  a  greater  sympathy  than  the 
Nuremberg  painter,  and  was  a  finer  type  of  humanist. 
It  is  due  to  the  veracity  of  Holbein's  art  that  we  can 
judge  of  the  illustrious  Dutchman's  nn^f  ^r-nre  in  lift- 
Holbein  is  in  fact  the  peculiar  inii; 
mus.    The  two  portraits  that  he  paint', 
to  England.    In  a  letter  to  Wilibald  Pirkheimer  on 
June  3,  1524,  Erasmus  says:    "Only  recently  I  have 
senf^?^{?S^po'^i^¥fe'^S^i^i^%;^fe^^^  a  not 

unskillful  artist.  He  has  also  taken  a  portrait  of  me 
to  France.''  One  of  these  was  sent  as  a  present  from 
Erasmus  to  Warham,  as  we  know  from  the  letter  of 
September  4,  1524,  to  the  Archbishop.  Today  one  of 
these,  the  smaller  panel,  hangs  in  the  long  gallery  of  the 
Louvre,  (Plate  VI)  having  passed  at  one  time  in^^^  the 
collection  of  Charles  I  who  parted  with  it  hv  - 
The  original  study  of  the  Louvre  portr  a  pa- 

per, is  at  Basel.    The  other  portra  23  is  in  the 

collection  of  Lord  Radnor  at  Longford,  near  Salisbury. 
Perhaps  no  inscription  on  a  picture  was  ever  more  ap- 
propriate and  striking  than  that  on  the  latter.  It  reads : 
"Hrakaeioi  Ponoi  Erasmi  Rotero.    .         The  la- 


Portraits  of  Erasmus  83 

hours  of  the  scholar  had  indeed  been  Herculean  by  that 
date. 

If  we  allude  briefly  to  the  small  portrait  from  Grey- 
stoke,  now  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  J.  P.  Morgan  at  Glen 
'^ove,  Long  Island,  painted  by  "Haunce  Holbein,"  the 
work  at  Parma,  and  the  small  roundel  at  Basel,  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  countless  versions  and  deriva- 
tives of  a  later  date  perpetuate  the  fame  of  the  scholar. 
One  of  the  most  noteworthy  of  these  is  that  at  Windsor 
Castle  painted  by  Georg  Pencz  in  1537,  the  year  after 
Erasmus's  death.*^ 

We  need  not  spend  much  time  on  the  French  drawing, 
circa  15 10,  at  Chantilly  which  is  inscribed  "Herasmes." 
M.  Moreau-Nelaton  has  claimed  that  it  preserves  to  us 
the  features  we  have  studied  so  often.  But  the  argu- 
ment seems  unconvincing.*®  That  spelling  is  no  more 
fanciful  than  Herasmus,  Gerasmus  and  Hierasmus,  all 
of  which  might  perhaps  be  met  with. 

We  need  not  concern  ourselves  with  the  Umbrian 
School  silver  point  drawing  of  a  "Man,"  holding  a  book 
in  his  hands,  in  the  Albertina  collection,  Vienna.*^  It 

A.  B.  Chamberlain:  ''Holbein,"  i,  162-173. 

Gazette  des  Beaux  Arts,  1907,  vol.  xxxvii,  p.  483. 

In  the  Albertina  ''Album,"  vi,  662,  as  a  *'Monk  with  a  Book." 
This  is  clearly  the  "Monk  standing"  which  was  in  the  sale  cata- 
logue of  Cornelis  Ploos  van  Amstel,  1800,  no.  45,  and  was  de- 
scribed as  by  Erasmus !  This  error  has  been  duly  copied  by  all 
authors  and  lexicographers  ever  since.  Most  recently  it  figured 
as  such  in  Thieme-Becker's  Lexikon, 


84  Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 

was  formerly  wrongly  catalogued  as  by  a  Netherlander. 
As  the  word  "Erasmus''  is  inscribed  upon  it,  some  have 
even  been  unwise  enough  to  see  in  it  the  features  of 
Erasmus  of  Rotterdam! 

The  catalogue  of  the  sale  of  the  Hope  Heirlooms  at 
Christie's  July  20,  1917  (no.  32)  included  a  "Portrait 
of  Erasmus"  by  (or  attributed  to)  L.  Cranach. 

A  portrait  of  Erasmus  by  an  Unknown  Painter,  (13 
ins.  X  10  ins.),  is  in  the  Boijmans  Museum,  Rotterdam. 
It  was  No.  396  in  the  1883  Catalogue. 

Mrs.  du  Buisson  lent  a  portrait  of  him,  by  Cranach,  to 
the  New  Gallery  1890,  No.  85. 

We  need  not  pursue  the  matter  further.*^ 

Homo  fuit  atque  humanus  Erasmus, 


*®  Other  material  is  contained  in  Zeitschrift  f,  Bild.  Kunst, 
1898,  vol.  X,  pp.  44-56. 

Comments  on  this  triptych  have  already  appeared  in  the  Bulle- 
tin of  the  City  Art  Museum,  of  St.  Louis,  September,  1917;  and 
in  Art  in  St.  Louis,  October,  1917.  An  article  on  it  is  published 
in  Art  in  America  for  December. 


VI 

NO  OTHER  PICTURE  BY  ERASMUS  KNOWN 


VI 

NO  OTHER  PICTURE  BY  ERASMUS  KNOWN 


In  our  excursions  into  the  by-paths  of  art-history,  we 
occasionally  ascertain  after  the  expenditure  of  much  la- 
bour that  some  artist  of  a  past  century  has  come  to  be 
known  by,  or  at  least  identified  with,  but  a  single  work. 
In  a  few  cases  some  such  writer  as  the  Anonimo  Morel- 
liano,  Vasari,  Houbraken,  Walpole,  or  Waagen  happens 
to  be  our  authority.  It  may  be  that  such  sole  work  by 
a  painter,  his  aira^  Xeyo[KivoVy  belongs  to  a  public  gallery, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  signed  portrait  of  a  "Man"  by  Aless- 
andro  Oliverio  at  Dublin.  Another  such  "once  found'' 
picture  is  the  fully  signed  "Ceres'*  by  Michele  Pannonio 
at  Buda  Pesth. 

Such  rarities  may  be  revealed  by  their  chance  appear- 
ance at  an  auction  sale,  when  few  have  the  time  to  check 
any  oversight  by  the  compiler  of  the  catalogue.  Or 
they  may  appear  at  a  loan  exhibition,  and  in  that  case  all 
uncertainties  as  to  signatures  and  questionable  attri- 
butions are  by  the  day  that  it  closes  cleared  up  by  the 
exacting  critic,  although  he  may  not  publish  his  conclu- 
sions. 

In  some  cases,  where  signatures  or  records  are  not  to 


88 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


be  found,  it  is  possible  to  group  together  a  large  number 
of  works  and  maintain  that  they  are  by  one  hand,  even 
though  the  name  of  the  artist  be  unknown.  This  ex- 
plains the  origin  of  such  fictitious,  but  helpful  names  as 
Amico  di  Sandro,  Alunno  de  Domenico,  Compagno  di 
Pesellino,  the  Master  of  the  Drum,  etc.  In  time  some 
penetrating  student  may  suspect  that  the  works  of  such 
"Companion,''  "Friend,''  or  "Pupil"  might  with  advan- 
tage be  subdivided  into  early  or  late  achievements  that 
exhibit  slightly  different  styles  or  degrees  of  excellence 
—  or  the  opposite.  Or  the  "Companion"  may  be  a  dual 
personality.  In  this  way  the  investigation  into  the  iden- 
tity of  the  unknown  one  is  advanced  a  stage  or  two.  In 
time  a  Hulin  de  Loo  proves  that  the  Netherlandish 
primitive  painter  "Maitre  de  Flemalle"  is  none  other  than 
Robert  Campin.  Some  one  may  similarly  dispel  a  few 
of  the  doubts  regarding  Piero  di  Lorenzo  Pratese  in  the 
Pesellino  group. 

In  rather  different  circumstances  we  know  that  can- 
vases exist  from  the  hand  of  some  ascertainable,  but  not 
very  important  painter,  records  of  whose  paintings  exist 
although  none  bears  his  signature.  Such  is  the  case  of 
the  "St.  Jerome"  by  Cabezalero,  long  in  the  Stafford 
House  Gallery.  However,  the  signature  and  the  date 
were  not  generally  detected  until  its  purchase  by  Mr. 
Herbert  Cook  for  the  Gallery  of  Sir  Frederick  Cook  at 
Richmond-in-Thames. 


His  Only  Known  Painting 


89 


Instances  of  other  "sole  works"  will  occur  to  the  read- 
er to  show  that  evolution  is  still  going  on  in  the  art- 
world.  But  the  mists  of  the  dark  ages  of  criticism  are 
clearing  away.  Thus  we  no  longer  believe  that  there 
were  two  painters  of  the  name  of  Nicholas  Maes,  nor 
that  there  ever  were  three  Veneto-Veronese  painters- 
artists  of  the  name  of  Bonifazio.  Such  matters  form 
the  very  alphabet  of  present  day  connoisseurship. 

But  what  is  to  happen  when  paintings  of  an  unusual 
character  remain  long  hidden  from  view  ?  There  is,  of 
course,  the  danger  that  their  traditional  ascription  and 
their  pedigree  alike  will  pass  into  oblivion.  No  other 
work  by  the  same  hand  being  forthcoming,  all  trace  of 
identity  may  for  many  years  be  lost.  But  if  records  and 
detailed  descriptions  are  preserved  even  in  an  obscure 
publication,  there  is  always  the  chance  that  identification 
of  the  canvas  so  documente  may  once  more  be  estab- 
lished. Nor  will  there  be  any  gainsaying  the  evidence, 
if  an  obviously  genuine  although  rare  signature  comes 
to  light  at  the  same  time.  The  task  of  the  research 
worker  is  onerous  and  thankless,  but  a  peculiar  charm 
at  times  attends  the  drudgery  of  his  labours  which  on 
occasion  culminate  in  complete  success. 


VII 

CONCLUDING  REMARKS 

In  our  description  of  this  triptych  we  have  ventured  to 
suggest  that  the  architectural  background  of  the  dexter, 
or  left,  wing  (page  24)  may  well  have  been  derived  with 
some  degree  of  accuracy  from  an  actual  building.  In 
support  of  what  may  appear  to  some  to  be  an  arbitrary 
view  we  may  urge  the  extraordinary  frequency  with 
which  we  throughout  our  work  have  returned  to  the 
city  of  St.  Onier  as  one  of  the  centres  of  Erasmus's  man- 
ifold activities.  It  thus  occurred  to  the  present  writer 
to  look  at  photographs  of  the  well  known  altar-piece 
painted  by  Simon  Marmion  to  set  forth  the  "Legend  of 
St.  Bertin."  That  many-paneled  picture,  moreover,  re- 
mained intact  at  St.  Omer  from  1459  to  1783.  The 
scattered  portions  of  it  are  now  at  Berlin,  The  Hague, 
and  the  National  Gallery,  London.*^  Any  one  who  will 
compare  the  gateway  and  distant  tower  in  the  present 
triptych  with  the  building  seen  in  the  fifth  section  of  the 
interior  of  the  left  wing  by  Marmion  (now  at  Berlin) 

*®  See  Deshaisnes :  ''Recherches  stir  le  Retahle  de  S.  Berlin 
et  sur  S.  Marmion  f  and  Klemm:  ''Der  Berlin  —  allar  aus  St. 
Omer."  The  artist  worked  at  Amiens  1449-54,  and  at  Tournai 
in  1468.    He  died  in  1489. 


Concluding  Remarks 


91 


will  see  striking  similarities.  The  scene  in  the  Berlin 
picture  is  that  in  which  St.  Bertin,  Momelin,  and  Eber- 
tramne  kneel  before  Adrowald. 

It  will  be  advisable  to  recite  briefly  the  circumstances 
under  which  St.  Bertin  found  himself  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  St.  Omer  in  A.D.  640.  St.  Bertin  was  sailing 
his  ship  "one  day"  when  it  suddenly  ran  aground.  In- 
stantly recognizing  that  his  inability  to  make  further 
headway  was  due  to  the  will  of  God,  he  forthwith  de- 
clared his  intention  there  to  found  an  Abbey.  (Haec 
requies  mea  in  saeculum  saeculi. )  Thus  Adrowald  gave 
St.  Bertin  the  marshy  land  where  the  ship  had  so  sud- 
denly stopped,  together  with  the  adjoining  land  of  Si  thin 
near  the  River  Aa. 

Any  of  those  who  are  satisfied  that  the  buildings  in 
portions  of  these  pictures  by  Erasmus  and  Marmion  are 
identical  may  be  interested  to  turn  to  Guicciardini's 
"Descrittione  di  Tutti  i  Paesi  Bassi,"  published  in  1588, 
which  contains  (p.  361)  a  delightful  old-world  plan  of 
the  city  of  St.  Omer  with  its  buildings  and  churches,  its 
extra-mural  gibbets  and  windmills.  Perhaps  the  spec- 
ulative may  be  disposed  to  see  resemblances  between 
the  castellated  buildings  abutting  from  the  main  plan  of 
the  city  towards  the  north  (  ?),  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
architectural  setting  employed  in  the  naturalistic  details 
of  Simon  Marmion's  picture,  as  well  as  so  much  of  it  as 


92 


Erasmus:  Humanist  and  Painter 


Erasmus  availed  himself  of  nearly  half  a  century  later, 
on  the  other. 

Again  the  frequent  reference  to  St.  Omer  prompts  the 
view  that  Erasmus  may  even  have  had  a  definite  com- 
mission from  Francois  de  Melun,  the  31st  provost  (1499- 
1521)  of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Bertin  at  St.  Omer  to  paint 
this  very  picture.  As  we  have  seen  (page  34),  Frangois 
de  Melun  was  an  ancestor  of  the  Comte  d'Espinoy  at 
whose  sale  in  1850  it  was  sold.  It  is  not  impossible  that 
our  triptych  remained  in  the  possession  of  the  Abbey 
down  to  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  and  that  it  then 
passed  to  a  descendant  of  Provost  Melun.  In  any  event 
tradition  in  the  family,  to  which  it  recently  belonged  in 
France,  narrates  that  it  was  in  the  Netherlands,  until  in 
the  time  of  Napoleon  I,  it  was  removed  from  Antwerp. 

But,  it  will  be  urged,  is  there  any  possibility  of  decid- 
ing this  hypothesis  by  documentary  evidence?  We 
know  that  Alard  Tassart,  who  was  born  at  St.  Omer  and 
took  orders  in  the  Abbey  of  St.  Bertin  in  1495,  compiled 
the  "Appendice  du  Cartulaire  de  St.  Bertin,''  and  that 
by  August  15,  1 5 12,  he  had  ''finished  it  a  long  time.'' 
He  died  there  on  Good  Friday,  April  11,  1532. 

By  1770  the  Abbey  of  St.  Omer,  which  had  been  in  ex- 
istence over  1 1 00  years,  had  accumulated  countless  doc- 
uments bearing  on  its  history.  But  until  that  date  au- 
thorities had  jealously  guarded  their  treasures  from  out- 
side view.    The  project  was  then  entertained  of  pub^ 


Concluding  Remarks 


93 


lishing  many  of  them.  This  resulted  in  the  transcrip- 
tion of  the  most  important  records  by  the  archivist  Dom 
Ch.  de  Witte  (1746-1807).  He  published  his  "Grand 
Cartulaire  de  TAbbaye  de  St.  Bertin."  At  the  Revolu- 
tion practically  the  whole  of  the  priceless  archives  of  St. 
Bertin's  disappeared,  or  were  destroyed.  De  Witte  was 
able  to  save  his  transcript,  which  he  treated  as  his  own 
property.^**  Subsequently  it  passed  to  the  Municipal 
Library  of  St.  Omer,  where  it  presumably  was  at  least 
until  1914.  We  can  only  regret  that  present  circum- 
stances prevent  our  putting  our  rather  plausible  view  to 
a  practical  test  in  France.  It  is  not  impossible  that  we 
might  thus  adduce  documentary  evidence  of  some  kind. 

It  must,  of  course,  be  remembered  that  the  Abbey  of 
St.  Bertin  is  in  ruins,  the  sole  relic  of  this  once  famous 
religious  house  being  the  church  which  was  begun  in 
1326  and  finished  in  1520. 

We  have  here,  therefore,  examined  the  various  issues 
connected  with  the  only  signed  work,  now  known  to 
exist,  by  the  Dutch  Humanist-Painter  who  did  more 
than  any  other  man  to  develop  the  modern  spirit  of  en- 
quiry and  investigation.  For  his  study  was  the  inter- 
course of  Mind  with  the  Infinite,  of  Man  with  God. 

In  conclusion  we  may  quote  the  words  of  Colet :  ''Oh ! 
Erasmus,  of  books  and  knowledge  there  is  no  end." 

Vinogradoff :  ''Oxford  Studies  in  Social  and  Legal  History,'* 
vol.  iv,  1914. 


I 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abbey  of  St.  Bertin  at  St.  Omer, 

36  92  93 
Adrian  Vl,  Pope,  53,  60,  67 
Aegidius,  Petrus,  81 
Albertina,  Vienna,  83 
Aldington,  Kent,  62 
Aldus  Manutius,  69 
Amico  di  Sandro,  88 
Amsterdam,  Rijks  Museum,  16 
Antwerp  Gallery,  19 

Bachhofen-Burckhardt,  15 

Basel,  65,  66,  68,  69,  70,  74,  82,  83 

Battus,  51,  59 

Bembo,  60,  74 

Berghes  Antoine  de,  54 

Berghes,  Henri  de,  50 

Berlin,  16,  90 

Bertrand,  36 

Bologna,  56,  57 

Bombasio,  57 

Bonifazio  de'  Pitati,  89 

Bouts,  Dirk,  19 

Bruges  Cathedral,  17 

Buda  Pesth,  87 

Cabezalero,  88 

Cambrai,  Bishop  of,  49,  50,  51,  54 
Cambridge,  56,  65,  66,  68 
Campeggio,  Cardinal,  68 
Castiglione,  Baldassare,  70 
Chantilly,  83 
Charles  I,  82 
Charles  V,  65,  69 
Chartres,  Cathedral,  25 
Chelsea,  56 

Clement  VII.  Pope,  74 

Cleves,  William.  Duke  of,  72 

Colet,  51,  53,  94 

"Concedo  Nulli,"  74 

Cook,  Mr.  Herbert.  88 

Cook,  Sir  Frederick,  88 

Cornelisz,  van  Amsterdam,  Jakob, 

15,  16 
Courtembrune,  31,  53 
Cranach,  Lucas,  84 


David,  Gherard,  27,  35 
Delft,  46 

"De  Pueris,"  72,  73 
D'Espinoi  family,  34 
D'Espinoy,  Comte,  32,  33,  34,  48 
Deventer,  45 

De  Vere,  Marchioness,  50 
De  Wit,  Jacob,  48 
Dopius,  Martin,  64,  69 
Dublin,  87 

Durer,  Albrecht,  17,  18,  67,  74,  81, 
82 

Dusseldorf,  15,  17 

Emmaus,  46,  47,  48,  49 
Engelbrechts,  Cornelis,  15 
England,  50,  56,  61,  62,  63,  71,  72,82 

Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  56,  65 
Foxe,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  56 
Frangois  de  Melun,  35,  92 
Froben,  44,  67,  70 
Fugger,  69 

Geertgen  tot  Sint  Jans,  15 
Gerhard  de  Praet,  41 
Giuliano  de'  Medici,  58 
God  Terminus,  74 
Gouda,  41,  44,  46 
Greystoke,  83 

Grimani,  Cardinal,  60,  61,  64,  65 
Grocinus,  51 
Guarino,  76 

Hague,  The,  45,  90 

Hammes,  Castle  of,  63 

Hegius,  Alexander,  45 

Holbein  the  Younger,  Hans,  68,  70, 

74,  82 
Hope  Heirlooms,  84 
Houbraken,  27,  48 
Inghirami,  Tommaso,  60 

Jean  de  Bourgogne,  35 
Journal  des  Beaux  Arts,  36 
Julius  II,  Pope,  57 


98 


Index 


K1.E1NBERGER,  37 
Koln  Gallery,  19 

Latimer,  51 

Leo  X,  Pope,  50,  60,  64,  67,  74 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  52,  55,  58,  60 
Linacre,  Thomas,  51,  69 
Liverpool  Art  Gallery,  17 
Lodovico  II  Moro,  52 
Longolius,  69 
Louis  XII,  60 

Louvain,  31,  49,  53,  61,  64,  67,  69 
Louvre,  44,  82 
Luther,  67 

Mantegna,  Andrea,  27 
Margaret,  mother  of  Erasmus,  41 
Marmion,  Simon,  90,  91 
Matsys,  Quentin,  17,  18,  66,  81 
Mathematics,  73 
Melanchthon,  43,  67 
Melun.  92 
Memlinc,  Hans,  27 
Michelangelo,  57,  59 
Mommelin,  36 
Montaigu  College,  49 
More  family,  70 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  50,  51,  56,  62, 
71,  72 

Morgan,  Mr.  J.  P.,  83 
Mountjoy,  Lord,  50,  63,  69,  74 
Musius,  Prior  Cornelius,  33,  46,  47 

Napoleon  I,  33,  92 

National  Gallery,  London,  17,  35, 

42,  90 
Nature  Study,  73 

OuvERio  Alessandro,  87 
Oxford,  69 

Pannonio,  MichelE,  87 
Pencz,  Georg,  83 
Petrarch,  77 

Pico  della  Mirandola,  57 
Pictures,  Erasmus  on,  73 
Pierre  de  Melun,  34 
Pirkheimer.  Wilibald,  68,  73,  82 
Ploos  van  Amstel,  37,  48,  83 
Poliziano,  57 
Portugal,  King  of,  31 


Radnor,  Lord,  81,  82 
Raphael,  60  .  / 

Ready  Charles,  41  ^' 
ReucfiHn,  John,  43,  65  ^ 
Rhenanus,  Beatus,  66 
Rome,  60,  61,  62 
Roper,  Margaret,  70 
Rotterdam,  42,  43,  54 

St.  Bertin,  Abbey  of,  at  St.  Omer, 

24,  34,  36,  50,  51,  54 
St.  Bertin,  Legend  of,  90,  91 
St.  Eleutherius,  26 
St.  Omer,  City  of,  31,  55,  67,  90,  91, 

92,  93 

St.  Oswald,  Lord,  19,  70 
St.  Piatus,  24,  25 
St.  Vincentius,  26 
Savonarola,  57 
Scotus,  Duns,  66 
Servatius,  Father,  63 
Shaw,  Rev.  W.  Hudson,  58 
Siret,  36 

Steen,  near  Gouda,  31,  46,  55 

TherouannE,  35 
Thieme-Becker,  43,  83 
Tournahens,  31,  50 
Tournai,  19,  25,  62 
Turin,  56 

Uffizi  GaixEry,  19 
Utrecht,  44 

Van  Amstel,  Ploos,  37,  48,  83 

Van  Bleijswyck,  46 

Van  Eyck,  Margaret,  42 

Van  Eycks,  The,  42,  44,  59 

Van  Leyden,  Lucas,  15,  17 

Van  der  Meire,  17 

Van  Ouwater,  Albert,  15 

Venice,  83 

Vienna,  83 

Viti,  Timoteo,  17 

Voltaire,  77 

Von  Hutten,  71 

Warham,  Archbishop,  56,  62,  64, 

69,  73,  82 
Weale,  W  H  James,  42 
Wolsey,  Cardinal,  62,  65 


One  hundred  copies 
privately  printed 
for 

Bdzmrd  A.  Faust 
April,  igi8 


7  DeceniTjer  1918 


My  Dear  Mr  HolDerts 

I  hsv3  read  with  interest  your  article  in  The  Times 
of  Octolier  24th  on  the  picture  hy  Srasnus  now  in 
St  Louis  and  I  am  sincerely  glad  for  the  criticism, 
as  I  printed  the  hook  by  Mr  Brockwell  snd  should 
like  to  have  made  several  suggestions  at  the  time 
though  I  realized  they  were  then  ciuite  out  of  my 
province.  As  it  was  I  wrote  a  column  for  The 

St  Louis  Star  (of  v/hich  I  am  literary  editor)  and 
I  agree  v/ith  you  that  the  author  of  the  'oook,  while 
evidently  a  close  student  of  Dutch  and  i'lenish  art, 
is  nevertheless  rather  lame  as  a  bihliOj.rerher. 

If  you  con  conveniently  do  so  I  should  lizs  v.n  ex- 
pression from  you  as  to  v/hat  you  think  of  ' 
from  the  mechanical  standpoint. 

I  believe  I  am  correct  in  the  surmise  thst  you  writs 
the  weekly  ITotes  on  Sales  for  the  Times.        I  know 
of  nothing  that  I  enjoy  more  thoroughly  "nd  I  may  add 
in  passing  that  your  books  have  been  to  re  a  great  joy 
and" pleasure.         7/hen  opportunity  agcin  ^i^esents  I 
hope"  to  get  to  London  On  such  an  occasion  I  should 

deem  it  a  great  honor  to  meet  you  persontlly 


Faithfully 


Mr  William  r{oberts 
18  Kings  Avenue 
Chatham  Park 
London  3  W 
EITGLMD 


